Posted on 09/25/2008 4:45:46 PM PDT by kc8ukw
Israel gave serious thought this spring to launching a military strike on Iran's nuclear sites but was told by President George W Bush that he would not support it and did not expect to revise that view for the rest of his presidency, senior European diplomatic sources have told the Guardian.
The then prime minister, Ehud Olmert, used the occasion of Bush's trip to Israel for the 60th anniversary of the state's founding to raise the issue in a one-on-one meeting on May 14, the sources said. "He took it [the refusal of a US green light] as where they were at the moment, and that the US position was unlikely to change as long as Bush was in office", they added.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
What is your opinion, I calling BS on this?
It’ll most likely happen after the election and McCain wins. Then it’s “bombs away!”
None.
Well, in the end, maybe some Irainian's, and some foreign technicians.
This was not a "decision."
Wasn't that long ago that Israel ask for bunker buster's and permission to use Iraqi airspace.
The US said, "no!"
I believe they got the bombs they wanted.
And late one night, in the very near future, US Radar Operator "Joe", located in Iraq, says, "Holy crap! Look at all those airplanes inbound!"
And Radar Operator "Bob" says, Come on!, your turn to deal..."
I don’t believe a single word of this.
However, if it were true, I wouldn’t blame Bush for not wanting to play. The American people no longer back him. Had I been Bush, I would have told our country to go to hell along time ago.
He needs to ride it out and then go fishing.
Rosh Hashanah starts sundown Tuesday
Yom Kippour starts sundown Tuesday the 7th.
Eid al-Fitr starts sundown Wednesday ( Islamic holiday end of Ramadan)
perdogg said: “What is your opinion, I calling BS on this?”
Depends what the meaning of BS is. Who gains from the release of this information at this particular time?
My reaction to LasVegasMac is BINGO!
Something is decidedly fishy here. The administration was seemingly all in favor of blowing the poop out of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, and then suddenly, in just a few days, they slammed on the brakes across the board. I remember it distinctly.
This was not, could not be a political decision. It takes weeks to get the whole administration, any administration, to change direction in normal circumstances. This means that the reason is purely military. And something so undeniable that there is no argument against it.
This means one of two things: either the US has the means to totally, absolutely, neutralize any nuclear threat from Iran, which is what I suspect; or Russia has threatened to go to war if the US attacks Iran. I think this is highly unlikely, despite Medvedev’s and Putin’s recent military pushiness.
What is known is that the US, because of President Bush’s unilateral action, has at least 300 PAC-3 anti-missiles surrounding Iran, as well as several other anti-missiles systems, such as Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), which augments the Israeli’s own ARROW anti-missile defense system.
And while defenses can be very good, it is unlikely that they are ever perfect. So this implies an offensive anti-missile capability as well.
The obvious answer is an in-theater airborne anti-missile laser system, or likely more than one. The Boeing YAL-1A, adapted to use a high power solid state pulse laser instead of a chemical laser, might be able to take out so many missiles in launch phase or even on the ground or in the silo, so that any missile that was able to get to altitude would be a sitting duck for conventional anti-missiles.
If such aircraft with such capabilities are in theater, it means that Iran has only a very limited window in which it could launch a sneak attack. For as soon as the US had an inkling of an attack, these aircraft would be in the air, and the missile defenses would be on full alert.
OH MAN I think if I was Israel do it end of Ramadan on the feast of the fast is over LOL!
If Israel bombs Iran the McCain administration won't bat an eyelash.
ping
Maybe....maybe not.
I'm 100% convinced that Israel is going to do what she is going to do, matters not what the USA says.
If they can get some help from the USA, the better off they are....but they know they can't put the USA in the spotlight to take direct heat for their actions.
Smoke and mirrors, I mean diplomacy, at it's finest.
Just info, nothing more......
I've had my feet on a dune overlooking a runway at Cairo West - military base just outside of Cairo.
Perfect pattern of bombs (repaired) going down that runway...twas a thing of beauty. Shot up EAF planes just pushed off to the side......
The story was a 4-6 ship IAF flight of F-4's took off, low-level, out over the Med. After a bit they did a tight formation - real tight - climbed, and turned around.....
Then radioed Cario IAP that they were "flight xxxx" and had an "in-flight-emergency" and needed to land ASAP. Cario let them come in, then at the last, the IAF flight did a hard right and balls-to-the-wall to the military base...
Many years ago I was looking at that repaired runway in Egypt...I remember giggling, thinking, "now that is how you f*** someone up!"
Israel is just full of surprises.......
and my $$ is on them every time!
“The Boeing YAL-1A, adapted to use a high power solid state pulse laser instead of a chemical laser, might be able to take out so many missiles in launch phase or even on the ground or in the silo,...”
In the silo?
bmflr
Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, Tabernacles.
No more right now. We’ve got enough on our plate.
Go for it Israel... we’re all busy right now and won’t notice.
Not a silo in the traditional sense, but a concealed underground launch site. Here is a very interesting reference about Iranian missiles, from FAS:
http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/iran/missile/shahab-4.htm
(use drop down menu in upper left to select missile class.)
Because above ground missiles can be satellite observed in launch preparation, it is quite likely that the Iranians have created underground missile launch facilities. However, because they are using liquid fuel missiles, this involves a very tricky process of fueling the missiles just before launch, because the fuel is very corrosive and can’t be left inside the missile for any great length of time before either being pumped out, or the missile is fired.
This involves highly unstable fumes in an already warm silo. Now imagine if a bright laser light raised just the air temperature in the underground facility by 200-300 degrees, just for a few seconds.
Without US help, the degree of difficulty and the chance for a less than satisfactory operation are strongly increased. Now, that being said, Israel is also smart enough to know that if the US does have an ace or two up its sleeve, that Israel would be better off waiting, at least for a while.
A very important point made by the Iranians is that even if America blows up their nuclear infrastructure, it won’t stop them, because like with Iraq, after GWI, America lost interest for a decade. And they do have a point.
So for this reason, I have long been convinced that just attacking their infrastructure is not enough. Iran must be denied the resources it needs to rebuild their nukes. To start with, I think this means partitioning Iran, giving Iranian Kurdistan to Iraqi Kurdistan to form a greater Kurdistan, defended by the Kurdish Peshmurga; and slicing off Arabic Khuzestan, and giving it to Iraq, to be defended by the Iraqi army, to take away most of Iran’s oil production. The Iranians mistreat both the Kurds and the Arabs, who have far more in common with the adjacent peoples than they do with Persians, so there would be no great resistance to this.
But in turn, this also means that with the air campaign, the Iranian army and IRGC would also have to be reduced, so they could not get these lands back.
You see, this goes considerably further than what Israel could do on its own.
The US as four Los Angeles class submarines brimming with conventional cruise missiles. We have given Israel a bunch of GBU bunker busters, though destined for Iran or Hezbollah, I cannot tell.
The US has also built an extra airfield in Iraq as well, fairly close to the Iranian border. Now I wonder what that could be for.
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