Iran Nuclear Standoff

[x-y-no]

Do you think that if Israel launches a Military strike inside Iran,it has to get help from the U.S. or it can do it alone?

At the very least, they would need our permission to overfly Iraqi territory and they'd need refueling service from us. Their planes don't have the range to make the round-trip unassisted carrying a bomb load.

But the other issue is Israel doesn't have bombers. They have fighters with some limited capacity to carry bomb loads. This isn't like the 1983 attack on Iraq's nuclear facility where there was one target above ground. This is multiple heavily defended underground targets. I don't believe Israel has the capacity to do them significant damage short of a nuclear strike, which is obviously unthinkable.

[wbug1]

I think a top level US government official has already said that the US doesn't have any interest in attacking Iran. If the US doesn't have any interest, then most likely Israel doesn't either.

[feederband]

don't believe Israel has the capacity to do them significant damage short of a nuclear strike, which is obviously unthinkable.

Why they are pretty much being threaten with the same...A successful nuc tip missle strike would be easier for them to do...

[Ed Mahmoud]

It would be in Saudi Arabia's interest to see their Shia adversary not develop nuclear weapons.

If Israel could overfly Saudi territory with their F-15Is and F-16Is that have the range to reach Iran, Iran might assume the US allowed overflight through Iraq, and retaliate.

Now, Israel only has a few squadrons that can reach Iran and return unfueled, and some of those planes would have to target anti-air defense systems, and some would have to fly combat air patrol against Iran's limited number of F-4s, older model F-14 and more recently purchased Russian fighters. So only a few planes would be bombing nuclear weapon sites, which are scattered and hardened.


But an Iranian over-reaction might draw the US in, and I suspect there are some in power in this country that would welcome the excuse to defang Iran while they still have the chance. And the US could destroy Iran's nuclear capability, although it would take probably several weeks of air strikes on the nuclear facilities, plus airstrikes to limit Iran's ability to fire missiles into Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the Emirates, Iraq and Israel, and hinder Persian Gulf tanker traffic.


And it only takes one 'lucky' hit from a Silkworm missile with a thousand pound warhead on a ULCC (big oil tanker) to make people get nostalgic for $4 gasoline, at least for a short period.

[cycloneye]

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20080610/ ... a8d4f.html



Will more economic sanctions work like this freezing of Iranian Banks?

[HURAKAN]

Have that worked before? It shouldn't work now.

[Derek Ortt]

dont just take out Iran's nuke capabilities

Take out all of their industry like we did to Serbia

[Cryomaniac]

I think a top level US government official has already said that the US doesn't have any interest in attacking Iran. If the US doesn't have any interest, then most likely Israel doesn't either.

If that's true, then Iran can do whatever they like

[x-y-no]

don't believe Israel has the capacity to do them significant damage short of a nuclear strike, which is obviously unthinkable.

Why they are pretty much being threaten with the same...A successful nuc tip missle strike would be easier for them to do...

Rhetoric from a politician who doesn't actually control the military (of a country that doesn't yet have nuclear weapons) is hardly equivalent to actually launching a nuclear first strike. I would hope anyone could see that.

[feederband]

don't believe Israel has the capacity to do them significant damage short of a nuclear strike, which is obviously unthinkable.

Why they are pretty much being threaten with the same...A successful nuc tip missle strike would be easier for them to do...

Rhetoric from a politician who doesn't actually control the military (of a country that doesn't yet have nuclear weapons) is hardly equivalent to actually launching a nuclear first strike. I would hope anyone could see that.

I no if I lived there I would want my goverment to do something before they did it to us...

[cycloneye]

PARIS - Iran rejected a six-nation offer of incentives to stop enriching uranium on Saturday, prompting President Bush and French President Nicolas Sarkozy to jointly warn Tehran anew against proceeding toward a nuclear bomb.

"Our allies understand that a nuclear-armed Iran is incredibly destabilizing, and they understand that it would be a major blow to world peace," Bush said at a news conference with Sarkozy at Elysee Palace.


Iran rejects new offer to halt Nuclear Program



Is military action imminent after this Iranian rejection of the offer to halt the uranimun enrichment?

[Derek Ortt]

I think it's high time we sent a RESOUNDING message to the world

These countries do not have the fear of us that they should because we have been fighting limited war. Take off the gloves and make an example out of Iran. In the long term, world peace may actually be advanced, as it was after dropping the bomb to end WW2

[TexasSam]

I don't think it's all that simple now days. To end WWII we were the only ones that had the "Bomb" Now days many others that we know of have the "Bomb". I don't want to drop a bomb someplace only to find out the hard way that they have one too. Also who knows what the computers, and satellites would do. Kind of like that movie "War Games".

[wbug1]

Unlike the principle behind global warming which is simple, the issue of MAD is a complex one. By the way, this was where MAD magazine got it's name from.

[HarlequinBoy]

I don't think it's all that simple now days. To end WWII we were the only ones that had the "Bomb" Now days many others that we know of have the "Bomb". I don't want to drop a bomb someplace only to find out the hard way that they have one too. Also who knows what the computers, and satellites would do. Kind of like that movie "War Games".

If we dropped a nuclear bomb I think we would lose enormous amounts of respect and would probably never recover. Also a lot of innocent Iranians would be killed and injured.

[Nimbus]

Read an article this morning that said AQ khan may have supplied blueprints to Iran for a Chinese CHIC 4 nuclear warhead.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,367196,00.html

Don't know if I would consider 1966 technology advanced though.

http://www.atomicforum.org/china/chinesetesting.html

[Derek Ortt]

I never said use the bomb.

What I would do is conduct a 1,000 plane air raid against Tehran.

We need to accept that most in the mid east will NEVER like us. That is why I do not give a you know what if they are outraged if we kill tens of thousands in an air raid. It will just be yet another excuse they come up with (like they were outraged about the Danish cartoons or the koran in the toilet)

[wbug1]

The New Colossus

"Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

- Emma Lazarus, 1883

plaque in the Statue of Liberty, New York Harbour, United States of America

It is time for the lightning to be released, to remove the blindfolds.

[cycloneye]

Ahmadinejad says West failed in Iran nuclear crisis


http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id ... _article=1

More blah,blah,blah!

[HURAKAN]

Surprised, at least no me!!!