*ping*
That depends entirely on how many megatons are in that wave.
Nobody here is serious, everyone is navel gazing and looking around for excuses for their cowardice. There are no physical limits on anything for either Israel or the US. All of the limits are inside their heads and moral, not physical.
1. Any attack on Iran by Israel will trigger a war with Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, & likely Syria & Lebanon. Israel will then have to fight a ground & air war on multiple fronts.
2. Any Israeli attack on Iran's nuke facilities will have limited success & only delay the Iranian nuke program. It will not destroy it.
The second point does not seem to justify the first.
I believe there is another way:
The Iranian nuke program is dangerous primarily because of the regime that will control them - the mad mullahs & Imanutjob. Get rid of them & the biggest part of the problem is solved.
This seems to me to be far simpler & more likely to succeed than a protracted attack on Iran's nuke facilities. With the added benefit that it might help the “Greens” in Iran to oust the mullahs for good.
A middle east conflict will go nuclear rapidly!
It’s hard for me to imagine that the Israeli’s could set the Iranian nuclear program back sufficiently with a conventional air strike (or even series of air strikes) to justify accepting the kind of political fall-out it would generate. Even Netanyahu won’t do this. They simply have no good options. They’ll watch it happen, and then depend on their own nuclear deterrent while they wait and hope for a more moderate Iranian government.
Why I can post things that size?
Well written article and it parallels some of what I’ve been saying for awhile.
Israel could destroy Iran’s nuclear program by seizing control of a few select sites.
Neutron weapons detonated above the sites would kill everything out to a radius of a few hundred to perhaps a thousand yards. Drop in IDF troops, take control of the sites and after establishing shelter in case further neutron devices are needed then proceed to demolish the underground sites. The Iranians would not be able to approach the sites regardless of what they tried. Small neutron devices would kill them inside tanks, planes, whatever. rinse,lather,repeat as needed.
Bunker buster type nuclear weapons would not guarantee destruction of the sites. They would have to detonate at considerable depth and very very close to the underground bunkers. Only demolition teams would be able to guarantee destruction of the underground sites. Nuclear bunker busters would also create a huge radioactive mess when inevitably one or more blasts breached the ground. Neutron blasts would not physically destroy anything non-biological on the ground and would leave no radioactive contamination.
The neutron weapons could be launched by sub, plane, jericho missile or even by the IDF forces on the ground.
This type of attack would leave 2 Israeli subs free to roam and also the bulk of Israeli air assets would remain over Israel for protection.
Think Entebbe x 10,000
If Iran is attacked by Israel, it is likely that at least one of our Nimitz class carriers will be destroyed by the waves of missiles that will be fired into the Persian Gulf. Our troops would also be attacked in Iraq and Afghanistan by Iranian forces.