Tom Cotton: Bombing Iran would take 'several days'

CNN ^ | April 8, 2015 | eric bradner

[balch3]

Washington (CNN)A U.S. military campaign against Iran's nuclear facilities would only take "several days" of bombing, Sen. Tom Cotton said Tuesday.

[WayneS]

Want to count how many countries will be happy to punish the USA in the UN?

Veto.

[Zhang Fei]

That nuclear plant wasn’t buried deep inside rocks. With that you want to be sure you obliterate the workings deep inside and not just the openings to the surface, where they can easily create alternate ones. And, Iran has so many sites, too.

So you are saying Israel has no non-nuclear military options?

[EQAndyBuzz]

“And how many months of ground combat, how many years of occupation, and how many decades of nation-building? “

None... bomb the mullahs until they are toast and let the 2009 democracy people that Obama stopped from taking over take over.

[Star Traveler]

I think they will want to pause between major strikes on particular facilities, to see what they do. If activities continue with a facility then they can follow up with more strikes. It’s not “boom, boom, boom” and it’s over ... there is going to need to be gaps in time between hits to asses the effectiveness of the strikes, and those gaps will be different between the different specific facilities.

[Star Traveler]

I thought Senator Tom Cotton was talking about a USA strike.

[LS]

Yes. If you look at their archipeligo, they have decentralized their nuke stuff all over the country. It would likely take troops.

[DoodleDawg]

None... bomb the mullahs until they are toast and let the 2009 democracy people that Obama stopped from taking over take over.

Because that worked so well in Iraq and Afghanistan. Oh wait...

[Zhang Fei]

I thought Senator Tom Cotton was talking about a USA strike.

Bibi is talking about an Israeli strike. I'm assuming without nukes, and only in a short Osirak-style time span, given that they can't get past fully-alert Iranian air defenses. If Israel can do it, we can do it better. We have Gulf Arab bases, stealth and a lot more airframes. And Tomahawks and JASSM's (not available in 1983) galore.

[DoodleDawg]

What ground occupation? The point is to destroy the nuke facilities, the way the Israelis did to Osirak in 40 minutes. Except we have more planes and Gulf Arab bases, and we can enlist their air forces in some of the blocking and tackling.

Osirak was a single facility, and a large one at that, completely above ground. Iran has their nuclear program scattered amongst God knows how many sites above ground and below. There is no way that you can guarantee that you will take them out with air strikes. But then after your days of air strikes then what do you expect Iran to do? Nothing? Or will they sink tankers, block the gulf, strike back at their neighbors and against us and Israel any way they can?

Anyone who thinks that this is a short term, few day military operation is crazy. Airstrikes only begin the process that will eventually require ground troops.

[LaRueLaDue]

“Iran is a huge, well-developed country, and it would take several months of bombing to identify and wipe out its nuclear facilities.”

What, you think we (or more likely Mossad) don’t already know as much as the Iranians do about their nuclear program? Israel probably already has all the pertinent location information dialed into their missiles and ready to go...

[Teacher317]

Oh, I’m betting the Israelis have some pretty good intel on the sites at the moment.

[Zhang Fei]

Because that worked so well in Iraq and Afghanistan. Oh wait...

Would it be so bad if all-out civil war broke out in Iran? The one thing they wouldn't be doing is building nukes.

[DoodleDawg]

If the USA only intends to obliterate the nuclear facilities in Iran, they don’t need ground troops or occupation. The time frame would be longer than a couple of days, though. It would probably be more like a few weeks and not days. After the destruction of the nuclear sites was done, then we just leave.

And assuming, for the sake of argument, that we can hit the nuclear facilites and through some miracle get most of them. What do you expect to happen next? Do you honestly think Iran will just sit back and say, "I guess you showed us. We surrender?" Or will they escalate the conflict in every way they can?

[DoodleDawg]

Would it be so bad if all-out civil war broke out in Iran? The one thing they wouldn't be doing is building nukes.

They won't be having a civil war, either. They'll be united against us.

[Timber Rattler]

But why would the Israelis share that kind of information with the Obama regime, which would just tip off the Iranians.

[Zhang Fei]

Osirak was a single facility, and a large one at that, completely above ground. Iran has their nuclear program scattered amongst God knows how many sites above ground and below. There is no way that you can guarantee that you will take them out with air strikes. But then after your days of air strikes then what do you expect Iran to do? Nothing? Or will they sink tankers, block the gulf, strike back at their neighbors and against us and Israel any way they can? Anyone who thinks that this is a short term, few day military operation is crazy. Airstrikes only begin the process that will eventually require ground troops.

How many facilities can they have? My guess is the upper limit required for minimal efficiency is 100. We can take out 100 sites easy. Most of Saddam's army was intact after Desert Storm. We bombed his facilities repeatedly. He was never able to rebuild his nuclear program.

[Zhang Fei]

They won't be having a civil war, either. They'll be united against us.

Who gives a damn? They are currently united against us in the same way Nazi Germany was united against us, with one key difference - Nazi Germany never came close to completing its nuclear program.

[LaRueLaDue]

“Do you honestly think Iran will just sit back and say, “I guess you showed us. We surrender?” Or will they escalate the conflict in every way they can?”

Well, gee, if their government is still functional and tries to escalate, I would anticipate that we have contingency for that; namely decapitate the government. Make it disappear.

Do you really think that military planners haven’t thought of those things? And that they don’t have an answer to all these questions?

If we actually take the step of destroying their nuclear capability, I think that we have plans and can handle any push back that the Iranian government might show.

[terycarl]

With big enough bombs, it wouldn’t take more than a few hours.

[kjam22]

We could have done that in the days immediately after 9-11 and gotten away with it. Bush missed a window of opportunity.