Posted on 02/12/2006 5:43:45 AM PST by voice of india
London: The United States is drawing up plans for bombing raids backed by submarine-launched ballistic missile attacks against Iran's nuclear sites as a 'last resort' to block Tehran from developing nuclear weapons, a media report said today.
Central command and strategic command planners are identifying targets, assessing weapon-loads and working on logistics for an operation, The Sunday Telegraph reported.
The war strategists are reporting to Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, as the US is updating plans for action if the diplomatic offensive fails to thwart the Islamic republic's nuclear bomb ambitions, the report said.
Tehran has repeatedly said that it is developing only a civilian energy programme. "This is more than just the standard military contingency assessment," a senior Pentagon adviser told the newspaper. "This has taken on much greater urgency in recent months."
The prospect of military action could put Washington at odds with Britain which fears that an attack would spark violence across the Middle East, reprisals in the West and may not cripple Tehran's nuclear programme.
However, the steady flow of disclosures about Iran's secret nuclear operations and the virulent anti-Israeli threats of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has prompted the fresh assessment of military options by Washington.
The most likely strategy would involve aerial bombardment by long-distance B2 bombers, each armed with up to 40,000lb of precision weapons, including the latest bunker-busting devices. They would fly from bases in Missouri with mid-air refuelling.
The Bush administration has recently announced plans to add conventional ballistic missiles to the armoury of its nuclear trident submarines within the next two years. If ready in time, they will also form part of the plan of attack, the report said.
Tehran has dispersed its nuclear plants, burying some deep underground, and has recently increased its air defences, but Pentagon planners believe that the raids could seriously cripple Iran's nuclear programme.
Iran was reported to the United Nations Security Council by the International Atomic Energy Agency last weekend for its banned nuclear activities. Tehran reacted by announcing that it would resume full-scale uranium enrichment - producing material that could arm nuclear devices.
The White House says that it wants a diplomatic solution to the stand-off, but President George W Bush has refused to rule out military action and reaffirmed last weekend that Iran's nuclear ambitions "will not be tolerated".
Sen John McCain, the Republican front-winner to succeed Bush in 2008, has advocated military strikes as a last resort.
"There is only one thing worse than the United States exercising a military option and that is a nuclear-armed Iran," he said recently.
Senator Joe Lieberman, a Democrat, has made the same case and Bush is expected to be faced by the decision within two years.
By then, Iran will be close to acquiring the knowledge to make an atomic bomb, although the construction will take longer, the report said.
However, Bush will not want to be seen as leaving the White House having allowed Iran to go nuclear.
This is just bad.
Having a plan is always good. Doesn't mean it's going to happen though.
B S
Then you'll love this one
Iran is prepared to retaliate, experts warn
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2006/02/12/iran_is_prepared_to_retaliate_experts_warn/
Just the nuke sites?
All Iran has to do is call an emergency meeting of all OPEC members and urge them to adopt Euros as the official trading currency. Switching to Euro Dollars will totally shaft the U.S. economy. Oil may be trading at $ 75 bbl on Monday based on this news report alone.
Don't worry about this being published. It's also reasonably well-known even to the U.S. public that we have "war-gamed" plans for invasions into Canada and Mexico.
Nobody who matters doesn't already know or assume that we would have plans for bombing / invading Iran. No doubt it's a modification or combination of long-existing plans.
In the meantime, Chavez is building defense structures to combat our planned invasion of Venezuela. Watch oil very closely. Speculators will be going nuts. If oil hits $ 75, many people will be stretched very thin unless they have already purchased their winter supplies. Long lines as cars wait to fill up with gas? Shades of the 1970's? SUV's sold for cut rate prices? Gas selling for $ 4 per gallon?
A quote by a "senior Pentagon official." Unnamed. Unsubstantiated.
Older quotes from Congressmen talking about what we "might" do.
That's it.
bttt
Why don't we just send a Certified Letter to the bad guys so they know whats coming?
India defence- just gathers some interesting news articles and posts them in their website.Here the article was collected from the PTI (press trust of india) which in turn "claims" to have quoted the sunday telegraph.India defence does not publish any of its own articles all of them are collected from other agencies.
regards,
7% of the oil market is Iran.
Not true. The Saudis began a shift towards the Euro a year ago. The Euro has fallen from 1.38 to 1.19 per dollar since then.
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