Good point
http://www.2la.org/syria/wmd.html
Posted on 09/24/2004 9:46:05 AM PDT by CHARLITE
The recent announcement of a deal for Israel to acquire thousands of Precision-Guided-Munitions (PGM) went largely unheralded by Elite-Media, who mostly yawned and ho-hummed the sale. One source, the Seattle Post Intelligencer did little more than the intellectually lazy approach, recycling an AP report but the numbers in the report were very telling: 3000 2000-pound laser-guided bombs, 1000 1000-pound laser-guided bombs and 500 500-pound precision-guided bombs.
The most important number noted above is the huge number of 2000-pound PGM’s – these are heavy, penetrating munitions needed to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities. The PGM’s also have a satellite-targeting option allowing the attacking aircraft to ‘stand off’ great distances and lob the bombs to the general area of the target with the terminal phase of the bomb’s path being guided by satellite.
In case you haven’t realized the fact: the Iranian nuclear enrichment program will soon dramatically affect your life and the lives of countless millions in other nations. A massive showdown is coming over Iranian enrichment of used nuclear reactor fuel that will draw many more countries into the fray in the Persian Gulf. The Iranian nuclear weapons program is a huge, robust operation that gets little play in the mainstream media. It is the program of a country determined to be a major nuclear power.
There are a total of five Iranian nuclear facilities the Israelis will have to strike to assure the elimination of Iran as a nuclear threat for the future:
Tehran – Tehran is the command and coordinating center for the Iranian nuclear program, with the offices being located in a suburb to assure civilian deaths and what the media loves to tout as “collateral damage”. Precision strikes on the program offices, which include a missile program, should keep civilian deaths low. But the Iranians may cluster civilians around the suburban target if the government thinks an air strike is imminent. The facility includes a research reactor, radio-isotope production unit and multi-purpose laboratories. Arak – Heavy water production is centered in Arak. Heavy water is used to moderate nuclear fission in reactors. Large amounts of power are required to produce heavy water and the reactors supplying that power will need to be bombed. Natanz (not shown on map) – A facility containing gas centrifuges 200 miles south of Tehran and Northeast of Isfahan. Gas centrifuges separate and enrich uranium that has been gasified, resulting in a highly-enriched, bomb-grade product. This is the last step to obtain material for a nuclear weapon. Bushehr – A 1000-megawatt reactor on the Persian Gulf coast built by the Russians under contract. This reactor should have started by now. The used fuel from the Bushehr reactor will provide Uranium for many, many bombs and missiles. Isfahan – Containing a variety of reactors and Uranium conversion facilities, the Isfahan facility is a sprawling complex. Most Americans fail to realize the enormity of the Iranian weapons program due to the failings of the media, although pictures and surveillance photographs of the facilities are readily available.
Any Israeli strike will of necessity be massive, employing squadrons of F-15’s and F-16’s escorted by electronic-warfare radar-jamming aircraft to blind Iranian air defense radar. While the Israeli air strike on the Iraqi French-built Osirak reactor in 1981 was a relatively brief in-and-out affair the air strikes into Iran will be sustained and intense, with many dozens of mostly 2000-pound PGM’s being used to pulverize reactors, gas centrifuges, heavy water production and support facilities. A thorough job is required as the likelihood of catching the Iranians unaware a few years later is small. Iranian air defenses vary from good to bad to inconsequential. The biggest threat will from salvos of anti-aircraft missiles that may actually get lucky occasionally and succeed in downing an attacking aircraft.
American complicity is required for any strike to be successful; indeed, American participation may even be in the works. Israel may not possess adequate fuel tanker aircraft to refuel the strike groups returning to Israel and U.S. Air Force tankers will likely be needed. If U.S. Air Force aircraft join the assault the numbers will be adequate to systematically pulverize Iranian facilities to such an extent that resurrection of the program would not be feasible. Areas contaminated by uranium will be small and limited to the immediate sites although Iran may be willing to expend thousands of lives trying to recover nuclear material from the rubble for sale to terrorists groups for the construction of ‘dirty bombs’ for revenge.
Iranian protests that the nuclear program is “peaceful” and for electrical generation alone is a patently ridiculous statement for a country able to easily build many oil-fired power plants cheaply. Iran has adequate oil to run electrical plants at a far lower cost than nuclear reactors for many years. There is much information available on the Worldwide Web on this topic but mainstream media’s attention-span on the topic is practically non-existent, likely seen as a “boring” topic, those pesky descriptions of reactors and bombers etc. not suited for prime time. It will be a prime-time event, spanning days of 24/7 coverage, mostly by talking heads, who know little of the subject.
Neither the United States, Israel or many other countries intend on allowing the Iranian nuclear weapons program to succeed and will unhesitatingly widen the current war to deprive Iran of it’s imminent acquisition of nuclear weapons.
About the Writer: Chris Long is a life-long devotee of history, strategic affairs, military history, and geopolitics. He lives in Georgia and is employed as a computer systems analyst .
bump and thanks!
Indeed, it is the plutonium that Iran seeks, the ability to upgrade Pakistan's A-Bombs into H-bombs suitable for wiping out cities wholesale that is the issue. It is not the processing of Uranium for a reactor that if freaking the US and Europe, but the very significant find of traces of weapons grade PLUTONIUM in Iran.
We know because of the announcement of the Islamic Bomb in Pakistan they have nukes, but there is a world of difference between little Hiroshima 20k bombs and 20 MEG bombs. It would take a dozen nukes to waste LA but only one H bomb would take out that city. One 20kiloton bomb would pretty much waste Jerusalem or any Israeli city. The fact that Iran is seeking plutonium enrichment is a clear indication that the Jihadi are not seeking the destruction of Israel, but the destruction of Europe or America and their mega-cities.
This is the real game behind the scenes, and why most reporting of the initial find in Iran were "sanitized" to list uranium in later reports. Don't want to upset the sheeple...
I'd like to see Israel, after they send the Mullahs to meet their moon god, to then officially reveal their nukes to the rest of the Arab world and say, "Okay, anybody got anything else to say?"
Interesting thought there Mr Atos
You're both right: after Nov 2. Here's a cold one for both of you!
>>Thank GOD - NOT allah, for Israel.<<
Amen!!!!!!!!!!
Good point
http://www.2la.org/syria/wmd.html
Wow. As much time as I've spent reading the Bang List, I should have picked up on that before now.
I have no desire to fulfill these duties to their most grim extent. But I believe we should all be prepared. If worse comes to worst, our families and neighbors will appreciate the fact that we planned ahead.
Concur. Human life is sacred. So sacred that it requires protection from those seeking to willfully destroy it.
A necessary evil. Like D-Day.
That's exactly what we are doing. If we do not strip Iran of all nukes, it is only a question of time until they are used here.
Meanwhile the entire geopolitical balance in the region is altered and we probably lose the war on terrorism even if the Iranians do not blow up Pittsburgh.
I would prefer to have the Israelis do the deed leaving us with plausible deniability so that Arab countries can continue to deal with us on terrorism and oil. The Israelis have the more immediate interest at stake and they would be fools not to act preemptively.
Such a strike would also wonderfully improve the cooperation quotient in N. Korea.
Whatever 'tis done, 'twer better if done quickly and cleanly before the UN can do anything but moan.
I think this move is to deter future threats. Sales of this sort take some time. I think we will have to do it if Iran is to have a bomb by 2005. Israel won't be ready in time to take out the facilities.
Yes. Remember their warning of un up-coming 80 seconds of Hell?
I don't see this happening until Iraq can stand on its own feet.This is another reason I don't understand why Bush is moving slow against the terrorist in Fallujah.We need to kill them first so we can concentrate on the Iranian border.He must also close our border and deport the agents Iran has planted in this country ready to blow up our bridges and nuclear plants.Maybe by summer 2005.
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