Posted on 07/02/2006 4:59:47 PM PDT by Aussie Dasher
SENIOR military officers have warned the US administration that bombing raids against Iran would fail to destroy the country's nuclear program due to a lack of reliable intelligence, the New Yorker magazine reported overnight.
Pentagon officers "have told the administration that the bombing campaign will probably not succeed in destroying Iran's nuclear program," Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Seymour Hersh wrote in the magazine's latest edition.
The military officers are concerned about contingency plans to launch air strikes against Iran because of the absence of actionable intelligence or concrete evidence of bomb making, the magazine said, citing unnamed active duty and retired officers and officials.
The article also alleges that the White House had advocated the possible use of a nuclear device to attack Iran's uranium enrichment plant in Natanz but that the military leadership ultimately succeeded in having the option dropped in late April.
The military's experience in Iraq, in which US intelligence on weapons of mass destruction proved "deeply flawed," has made senior officers wary in the case of a possible air campaign against Iran, the New Yorker said.
"The target array in Iran is huge, but it's amorphous.... We built this big monster with Iraq, and there was nothing there. This is son of Iraq," one high-ranking general told the magazine.
A former senior intelligence official is quoted as saying that Pentagon officers are asking: "What's the evidence? We've got a million tentacles out there, overt and covert, and these guys (the Iranians) have been working on this for eighteen years, and we have nothing?"
Entitled Last Stand: The military's problem with the President's Iran policy, the article written by journalist Seymour Hersh portrays military officers as anxious about history's judgement and increasingly willing to air their objections to policies set out by Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
"The system is starting to sense the end of the road, and they don't want to be condemned by history," a retired four-star general told the magazine.
"They want to be able to say, We stood up."'
The Bush administration has refused to rule out possible military action if diplomatic efforts fail to persuade Iran to halt sensitive uranium enrichment work.
The US and other world powers on Thursday gave Tehran one more week to provide a "clear and substantive response" to an international proposal designed to defuse the long-running crisis over Iran's nuclear programme.
Seemore Heinie wrote the story.....nuff said.
Once again, unnamed sources.
IAC. I recall our efforts to knock out the German atomic program worked because the disruptions were enough to keep it from going forth.
I don't see the US attacking Iran, I think it will be up to Israel.
And they'll know that if they do launch a strike,we'll be dragged into the fight whether we want to participate or not.
While I believe this article is bunk, if we really wanted to destroy the Iranian nuclear program, some B-61-11 bombs would be more than effective.
I smell a double-back.
Weeks ago Condi Rice said it was a matter of weeks, not months..The President later said the same.
Hmmmmm! Should we be surprised if...
Seymour Hersh lies in every article. He wrote how we were routed by the Taliban early in the Afghanistan operation.
Completely false, but he was never made to pay the price.
He is ten times the liar that Dan Rather is, and that's saying a lot.
The Allies screwed up the German heavy water production but even if they hadn't, the odds are very low that the Germans would have had a deliverable nuclear weapon by the end of the war. Their research was going in the wrong direction.
The Japanese, however, were far closer to an atomic bomb and the Allies knew absolutely nothing about it.
Yet another story using unnamed military officers, seems like that must be a new military classification.
I wouldn't doubt it. The U.S. relies far too much on satellites and other electronic measures for intelligence. There is nothing better than having men on the ground. Unfortunately, the Dems put an end to good intelligence gathering after their Bay of Pigs debacle.
They can't be that anxious if they won't risk their pensions and future consulting contracts, and leak only to a known liar.
They're not risking their lives. All they have to do is call a press conference, take off their stars, and speak their minds. They'd get more publicity that way than whispering to this POS.
Incidentally, the Clintons handled dissent among senior officers by reminding them that strange things can happen to pensions that could take years to straighten out.
"Pentagon officers have told the administration that the bombing campaign will probably not succeed in destroying Iran's nuclear program"
Destroying? Maybe not. Delaying like a MoFo? Definitely. I still don't see why destroying the Iranian reactor along with constant threats of their uranium enrichment facility being wiped out would not affect their program. Even the most dedicated Iranian wing nut scientist has second thoughts about going to work at a bunker with a bullseye painted on it once it is officially 'on' with the country that just handled two other mighty Muslim nations with a fraction of it's military forces and capabilities.
I don't wish for a war with Iran (they have an enormous pro-USA contingent that could really help out that country & region), but I certainly like our chances in an all out war (oil prices be damned).
The Japs actually put a ship to sea to unleash a dirty radiation device on San Franciso but the ship was recalled.
And how much intelligence did we have on either? IAC, hit someone on the head and he finds it hard to concentrate.
We knew a lot about the German program but not how much (or lack of) progress they were making. The Japanese program came as a total shock to the United States.
Japanese society being more impenetrable than Iran. My motto is still, if you think a snake is in the grass cut the grass.
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