Article

2007-09-23 Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Secret US air force team to perfect plan for Iran strike

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Posted by gorb 2007-09-23 02:47|| || Front Page|| [11130 views ] Top

#1 While the muzz wait for the return of the 12th imam (unlikely) we get set for the second coming of Curtis LeMay (imminent)...

Posted by M. Murcek">M. Murcek 2007-09-23 08:49|| 2007-09-23 08:49|| Front Page Top

#2 Hearts & minds, MM, hears & minds!

Posted by gromgoru 2007-09-23 09:34|| 2007-09-23 09:34|| Front Page Top

#3 I see it is the Times of London reporting and all, but this line begs for Clintonian parsing:

Detailed contingency planning for a possible attack on Iran has been carried out for more than two years by Centcom (US central command), according to defence sources.

Please, please, please say it ain't quite so.

1st - Centcom has existed for quite a while, but I'm not conversant enough to know if it was around in the early fifties, which is when, at a minimum, we should have begun planning these matters.

2nd - Maybe "detailed" is the unelaborated word here - in that we've note considered traffic signals or portable helipads or persian chromium reserves in prior planning, or similarly tertiary issues.

3rd - Perhaps the qualifying use of "more" refers to plans taken off the shelf for the first time since late December 1941

4th - Maybe the Times is just sending smoke signals and the wind caught them the wrong way - they did spell defense interestingly.

Posted by Thrinesing Prince of the Welsh6043 2007-09-23 10:20|| 2007-09-23 10:20|| Front Page Top

#4 CENTCOM was created in 1983.

Iran was not a major threat to the US in the 1950s. In the 1960s-early 1970s under the Shah it was an ally. I personally had a job offer to work in Teheran on a command and control system explicitly designed along the same lines as the one being created in the US at the time.

Plans depend on a great deal that changes over time: weapons systems, doctrine, force structure, geopolitical environment. Anything shelved 'since 1941' would scarcely be worth reading or building on.

But I take it what you really mean is that you'd like to see nuclear weapons used on Iran.

Posted by lotp 2007-09-23 10:29|| 2007-09-23 10:29|| Front Page Top

#5 Actually, any plans should steer far away from nuclear weapons use on our part. As for the decades of planning, I'd hope their considering the stuff pretty far afield from the purely military, and in that sense, the coup from the 50's should have been the starting point, even though it was followed by the Shah's rule - as for 1941 or before - it's the cultural background that would be useful, you're correct in the waste of anything else smacking of logistics or similarly data-based conclusions.

For that matter, we've been contesting these issues since the shores of Tripoli episode, though the Persian setting is so far afield from that.

Posted by Thrinesing Prince of the Welsh6043 2007-09-23 10:47|| 2007-09-23 10:47|| Front Page Top

#6 Defence is the British spelling. My spellcheck ticks me on that every time.

Posted by trailing wife 2007-09-23 11:42|| 2007-09-23 11:42|| Front Page Top

#7 Don't get all defencive on us TW.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2007-09-23 11:56|| 2007-09-23 11:56|| Front Page Top

#8 Debka says Pooty is going to Terhan to meet with Nutjob....

Posted by Gomez Cheng3497 2007-09-23 12:24|| 2007-09-23 12:24|| Front Page Top

#9 we get set for the second coming of Curtis LeMay

I'd settle for the second coming of Arthur Harris.

Posted by DMFD 2007-09-23 13:57|| 2007-09-23 13:57|| Front Page Top

#10 I'll say it.

"Nuke 'em. Nuke the bastards."

They've been at war with us since 1979. It's time to end that war in a loud and deafening manner such that the rest of the world understands exactly what it means to f^ck with us and keep on f^cking with us for that long.

If that means we have to be bastards to the rest of the world, so be it. Better to be live bastards and hated than dead bastards and mourned (or not even).

Posted by FOTSGreg">FOTSGreg 2007-09-23 16:36|| 2007-09-23 16:36|| Front Page Top

#11 Show pictures of what people look like after a month of no water, fuel, or electricity.

Better yet, start distributing a well-produced and exceptionally vivid Middle Eastern version of "The Day After". Include highly persuasive depictions of recognizable landmarks vaporizing and familiar urban areas being rubblized and firestormed, right down to the burning concrete.

Spend the DVD's second half showing the jolly times had by all as they crawl out from beneath the ruins and begin dining on field mice for their Ramadan feasts. Graphically portray the deprivations and suffering that Islamic terrorism will win for the Muslim world.

Defence is the British spelling.

Derived from the ordinary root word, "fence".

Posted by Zenster">Zenster 2007-09-23 17:43|| 2007-09-23 17:43|| Front Page Top

#12 defence make de good neighbor.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2007-09-23 18:00|| 2007-09-23 18:00|| Front Page Top

#13 btw - "The War", the Ken Burns special on WW2 is on PBS tonight - record and watch....you'll be glad you did

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2007-09-23 18:34|| 2007-09-23 18:34|| Front Page Top

#14 Defence make de good neighbour.

Posted by Excalibur 2007-09-23 18:49|| 2007-09-23 18:49|| Front Page Top

#15 Heh.

Frank, It got a luke warm from the WSJ, so I'm going to watch my Victory at Sea DVD. Tell me how it was tomorrow.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2007-09-23 19:36|| 2007-09-23 19:36|| Front Page Top

#16 Bombing may indeed set back Iran's indigens ambitions, but only for a time and is exclusive of any nucmats = Nuke-WMD munitions transfers from 3rd Party nations hostile to the US or Western democracy. "TIS ONE REASON WHY DUBUYA WANTS US TMD IN EASTERN EURO + PATRIOTS IN ISRAEL-TURKEY - but we all know how Russia feels about US TMD near its borders/peripheries, don't we!? RUSSIA'S ATTITUDE > why the USN needs its own ARSENAL SHIPS wid GMD capabilities. WHen Russia talks about defeating US GMD, besides traditional or well-known methods of attack, IMO they are also talking about dev LR, UNDERWATER STANDOFF missle systems = MISSLE-TORPEDOES CAPABLE OF REMOTE/INDEPEN UW MANEUVER which will "pop up" only near their designated targets.
KOMMERSANT/WAFF.com > RUSSIA is dev its own robo USV capable of being armed wid warheads. Recall WW2 = JAPANESE MANNED, TORPEDO/BOMB-ARMED SUICIDE MINI-SUBS.

Posted by JosephMendiola 2007-09-23 20:23|| 2007-09-23 20:23|| Front Page Top

#17 Moud's consistent refusals to stop Iran's ambitions ala NUCLEAR ENRICHMENT, + Asymmetric Warfare [defensive "People's War, i.e. 20Milyuhn BASIJ armed "Volunteers"] > can be SUMMED UP AS IRAN WANTS BE INVADED BY THE USA-ALLIES, NOTSOMUCH DOING THE INVADIN'. Can also be ascribes as IRAN WON'T STOP UNTIL ITS FORCIBLY/ MILITARILY OCCUPIED *LEST WE FERGIT, THERE WERE NET NEWS REPORTS THAT IRAN'S MULLAHS WERE NOT AGAINST USING WMDS INCLUDING NUKES ON IRANIAN SOIL AGZ FOREIGN INVADERS.

Posted by JosephMendiola 2007-09-23 20:31|| 2007-09-23 20:31|| Front Page Top

#18 a particular iman's well needs to be melted with the heat of 10,000 suns so he can never crawl out of it.... he he he he...

Posted by 3dc 2007-09-23 22:23|| 2007-09-23 22:23|| Front Page Top

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