Pentagon sees Iran bombing as unsuccessful: report

Reuters ^

[markedmannerf]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Top Pentagon officers have told the Bush administration that bombing Iranian nuclear facilities would probably fail to destroy that country's nuclear program, the New Yorker magazine reported on Sunday. ADVERTISEMENT

The senior commanders also warned that any attack launched if diplomacy fails to end the standoff over Iran's nuclear ambitions could have "serious economic, political, and military consequences for the United States," the article said, citing unidentified U.S. military officials.

"A crucial issue in the military's dissent, the officers said, is the fact that American and European intelligence agencies have not found specific evidence of clandestine activities or hidden facilities; the war planners are not sure what to hit," according to the report.

The U.S. military's experience in Iraq, where no weapons of mass destruction were found and the war continues, has affected its approach to Iran, the magazine quoted a high-ranking general as saying.

"The target array in Iran is huge, but it's amorphous," the unidentified general was quoted as saying. "We built this big monster with Iraq, and there was nothing there.

"This is son of Iraq."

The United States on Friday spurned Iranian calls for more time to study an offer of incentives to curb its nuclear fuel program, insisting Tehran must reply by the Group of Eight industrialized nations' deadline on July 5.

The article, by journalist Seymour Hersh, also questioned the effectiveness of U.S. targeting potential nuclear sites.

"Intelligence has also shown that for the past two years the Iranians have been shifting their most sensitive nuclear-related materials and production facilities, moving some into urban areas, in anticipation of a bombing raid," it said.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

the war planners are not sure what to hit

Free advice: Start with the Baby Milk Factory, more on the the Sacred Shiite Shrine, then take out all the Islamic Charities, Al-Jezzera offices, CNN, CBS and any other "journalists".

[MNJohnnie]

Now I remember. This is the wack job that claimed Bush was planning to "Nuke Iran". Other comments by "Journalist" Hersh" about President Bush and/or Iran. Yeah we should really waste a lot of time on this wack job.

Would President Bush go to war to stop Tehran from getting the bomb?

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060417fa_fact

Seymour Hersh's alternative history of Bush's war

http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2004/09/18/hersh_interview/index.html

Seymour Hersh : The US government has videotapes of boys being sodomized at Abu Ghraib prison.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6492.htm


Journalist: U.S. planning for possible attack on Iran

http://www.cnn.com/2005/ALLPOLITICS/01/16/hersh.iran/

Seymour Hersh: "We've Been Taken Over by a Cult"

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/01/26/1450204

Seymour Hersh: Iraq "Moving Towards Open Civil War"

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/05/11/142250

[nuconvert]

Ahh, the old "the unidentified general" again

[NY Attitude]

Curious? "Top Pentagon Officials"? The heads of the Maintenance and Lawn keeper Unions maybe?

I was thinking the roofing sustainment personnel.

[KillTime]

Red Herring, smoke screen, call it what you will. Have no fear, there will be a violent and overpowering response upon Iran's nukc facilities at some point very soon.

[balch3]

Obviouisly they haven't rooted out all the Clinton holdovers yet. Rummy will have to overrule his generals then. Note to Pentagon: You were proven wrong on Iraq and you're wrong on Iran.

[calex59]

The U.S. military's experience in Iraq, where no weapons of mass destruction were found and the war continues, has affected its approach to Iran, the magazine quoted a high-ranking general as saying.

The story is probably a phony, no named sources, they are using it as a vehicle to continue the "no WMD found in Iraq" BS. They need to keep that in the news and try to wipe out the recent memory of 500 chemical weapons found(more probably)so the dimwit peons won't get the idea they have been lied to by the MSM.

[Teacher317]

The U.S. military's experience in Iraq, where no weapons of mass destruction were found and the war continues, has affected its approach to Iran

Repeat a lie often enough...

[calex59]

Beat you by that much!

[RedRover]

"The target array in Iran is huge, but it's amorphous," the unidentified general was quoted as saying. "We built this big monster with Iraq, and there was nothing there."

Seymour is flailing, cutting and pasting talking points. Iran has a huge array of targets AND there's nothing there?

[markedmannerf]

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060710fa_fact
On May 31st, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced what appeared to be a major change in U.S. foreign policy. The Bush Administration, she said, would be willing to join Russia, China, and its European allies in direct talks with Iran about its nuclear program. There was a condition, however: the negotiations would not begin until, as the President put it in a June 19th speech at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, “the Iranian regime fully and verifiably suspends its uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities.” Iran, which has insisted on its right to enrich uranium, was being asked to concede the main point of the negotiations before they started. The question was whether the Administration expected the Iranians to agree, or was laying the diplomatic groundwork for future military action. In his speech, Bush also talked about “freedom for the Iranian people,” and he added, “Iran’s leaders have a clear choice.” There was an unspoken threat: the U.S. Strategic Command, supported by the Air Force, has been drawing up plans, at the President’s direction, for a major bombing campaign in Iran.

[curiosity]

This isn't news. It's been in the public domain for at least a year.

With Iran, we're stuck between a rock and a hard place. I hope someone thinks up a solution.

[Pox]

citing unidentified U.S. military officials

That's exactly what I expected.

The New Yorker's and Reuter's staff are comprised of transvestite, transgender, kiddie porn loving, nambla subscribing scientologists who are not from this planet, according to my unnamed sources.

Where's my Pulitzer?

[Hartmann]

The U.S. military's experience in Iraq, where no weapons of mass destruction were found and the war continues, has affected its approach to Iran, the magazine quoted a high-ranking general as saying.

Now what "high-ranking general" would say that? The Pentagon's own web site contains reports of weapons of mass destruction that have been found. Peter Hoekstra and Rick Santorum have reported it and SOD Rumsfeld has acknowledged it. Either this article is bogus or else there are some generals who, as usual, are fighting against the concept of going to war (as they did with the first Gulf War, the Kosovo campaign, and the present war in Iraq). Even Madeline Halfbright got disgusted with them.

[COBOL2Java]

Top Pentagon officers have told the Bush administration that bombing Iranian nuclear facilities would probably fail to destroy that country's nuclear program...

I'll take a wild guess and say these "top officers" were Clinton appointees?

[Bombard]

Who can believe anything the MSM says when it comes to these unnamed sources. Do these sources really exist or are they just a front for the reporters to express their views on the subject.

[Newbomb Turk]

Maybe we should just target their government officials instead.

[Rameumptom]

Solution...

Dang.... I guess we'll have to just bomb the whole place instead of a few "select supsected enrichment" sites.

Worked against Germany and Japan.

[PghBaldy]

Yep. The Pentagon has leftovers too.

[SE Mom]

Seymour Hirsh, proven liar.

One of Chris Matthews favorite guests...they fairly froth when on together.