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.
No. If we use missiles it will be SLCMs from such as USS Ohio, just converted from a ballistic missile sub to a cruise missile sub.
IMO, probably the Administration, to ratchet-up the pressure on the Iranian regime, in an effort to get them to make the first move.
By "submarine-launched ballistic missles"I presume they mean The Big Ones(not cruise-missles)?
Agreed. That piece read like an 8th graders summary of "David Copperfield", produced using Cliff Notes and internet resources.
I'm sure there's more than just US with a plan. Distasteful but has to be done, I'm betting.
Watch oil prices surge higher.
I hope so. My energy positions tuned lower last week. Such an evil republican I am LOL..........
Truman should've nuked Stalin in '46.
There would be NO commies left anywhere if he had done this. (China would've been scared shitless, no Korea, no Vietnam, no need for a Euroweenie peace movement, no Gramsci-inspired infiltration of US culture...
Talk about your peace dividends!
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