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2004-11-19 Syria-Lebanon-Iran
To Destroy Iran's Nuclear Bomb Program, 350 Targets Must Be Hit
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Posted by Steve 2004-11-19 4:16:12 PM|| || Front Page|| [11130 views since 2007-05-07]  Top

#1 To paraphrase the Chinese sages, "the road to a thousand site bombing campaign begins with a single bomb!"
Posted by borgboy 2004-11-19 4:28:08 PM||   2004-11-19 4:28:08 PM|| Front Page Top

#2 apparently someone has been counting.
Posted by 2b 2004-11-19 4:32:47 PM||   2004-11-19 4:32:47 PM|| Front Page Top

#3 Hitting three hundred and fifty sites is not out of the question. At least not for the U.S. Air Force.

At present, there are no air bases within range for carrying out stages two and three.

Diego Garcia is close enough.
Posted by Bomb-a-rama 2004-11-19 4:33:05 PM||   2004-11-19 4:33:05 PM|| Front Page Top

#4 First take out the accessible air defense sites with cruise missiles. Then a sortie by multiple B-2's over Iran would not be too difficult, considering that it was done over Afghanistan and that we could enable aerial refueling enroute over Iraq...Assuming the same mission capable rate as during Enduring Freedom (55%) that would be approximately 10 B-2's which can each drop 16 separately targeted 2000lb. MK-84's. That's 160 separate targets.

Carrier-based US or Israeli aircraft could pick up the slack thereafter.
Posted by mjh  2004-11-19 4:37:09 PM||   2004-11-19 4:37:09 PM|| Front Page Top

#5 BTW...this from a forwarded email:
"The bombs are two 500lb laser guided bombs. Anyone standing unprotected within a quarter mile of their impact is killed instantly. The total casualty count from this tne strike was 48."

Is that 1/4 mile figure accurate? If so...can the kill zone for a 2000 lb. be estimated at 1 mile? I find that hard to believe. Probably a non-linear relationship, yes?
Posted by mjh  2004-11-19 4:39:02 PM||   2004-11-19 4:39:02 PM|| Front Page Top

#6 Do you think we can overfly Iraq without a backlash against Allawi?
Posted by lex 2004-11-19 4:39:54 PM||   2004-11-19 4:39:54 PM|| Front Page Top

#7 hmm...I would have thought Syria would be next. I guess I was wrong.
Posted by 2b 2004-11-19 4:41:07 PM||   2004-11-19 4:41:07 PM|| Front Page Top

#8 hmmm...interesting question Lex. Of course...if they are B-2's I'm not sure anyone would know, would they?

The other question is from whom would you expect the backlash? We flank Iran on two sides (AFG and Iraq) and as I understand it have implemented CASPIAN SHIELD to contain Iran from the North. I doubt Egypt and Jordan would do anything other than seethe...and Syria knows they are in our crosshairs. As for the Iraqis, I imagine a majority have very little love for the mullahs. Although, there may be some problems with their coreligionist Shi'a in the south.
Posted by mjh  2004-11-19 4:42:55 PM||   2004-11-19 4:42:55 PM|| Front Page Top

#9 Why not just use an Iraqi airbase for the air campaign?
Posted by Justrand 2004-11-19 4:46:51 PM||   2004-11-19 4:46:51 PM|| Front Page Top

#10 This is no time for the usual 500lb or 2000lb laser guided bombs, unless it is a air defense target. The newer 500lb and 2000lb bunker busters must be used on every sortie in the initial phase. In my opinion, acquiring air bases is not a problem. Air bases in Afganishtan, Quatar, Baharin, Saudia Arabia, Iraq, and Israel is available. The new long range F16's can be launched from SOME these bases.
Posted by Poison Reverse 2004-11-19 4:51:02 PM||   2004-11-19 4:51:02 PM|| Front Page Top

#11 Forget it. None of the above. Build like hell on the ABM system and render a small ICBM threat irrelevant and way too costly to maintain.
Posted by Shipman 2004-11-19 4:54:51 PM||   2004-11-19 4:54:51 PM|| Front Page Top

#12 Sounds like a rehash of the Atlantic article.
Posted by Mrs. Davis 2004-11-19 4:58:43 PM||   2004-11-19 4:58:43 PM|| Front Page Top

#13 Shipman,

Please explain your thoughts a little further. Do your really want to depend on an ABM concerning a nuke warhead? What about Israel?
Posted by Poison Reverse 2004-11-19 5:12:33 PM||   2004-11-19 5:12:33 PM|| Front Page Top

#14 Cruisers in the Gulf could provide some protection for Israel. No amount of ABM would stop the Iranians from trying to smuggle something out. If they were caught in the act, it might well be considered an act of war, but I'm not sure the mullahs are sane enough to think that one through.
Posted by Dishman  2004-11-19 5:45:09 PM||   2004-11-19 5:45:09 PM|| Front Page Top

#15 Blogger NEMESIS on possible alternative to bombs - hypervelocity projectiles:

http://nemesisonerousdolorous.blogspot.com/2004/09/here-they-go-again.html

The US military knows. I don’t, you don’t, and Henry Solkoski is certainly no longer current. But every day and in every way very smart people here are thinking up dastardly things to do to those who are trying to kill us. And that means that the Iranians could be in for what is colloquially known as a big fucking surprise.

At least that is my sincerest hope.





Posted by Bernie 2004-11-19 5:51:51 PM||   2004-11-19 5:51:51 PM|| Front Page Top

#16 [Off-topic or abusive comments deleted]
Posted by Josh TROLL 2004-11-19 5:53:07 PM||   2004-11-19 5:53:07 PM|| Front Page Top

#17 troll cleanup aisle 8
Posted by lex 2004-11-19 5:53:39 PM||   2004-11-19 5:53:39 PM|| Front Page Top

#18 Good grief, "Josh" - do you kiss your mother with that mouth touch your mother with those hands?

On second thought, of course you do.
Posted by Barbara Skolaut  2004-11-19 6:06:13 PM||   2004-11-19 6:06:13 PM|| Front Page Top

#19 MJH-
The lethal fragment zone for a Mk84 is one mile - that means that it is possible to be killed by a fragment of the bomb at that distance. I'm assuming the USAF has some sort of data to back it up, but that is what it said in the technical data.

Mike
Posted by Mike Kozlowski 2004-11-19 6:08:02 PM||   2004-11-19 6:08:02 PM|| Front Page Top

#20 PR, my theory is to build enough of a safe guard against piss ant nuclear states to force them to either bankrupt themselves or give up the game. Yes, there's a hell of a risk, life is a risky damn business. Israel is an ally. So is Great Britain. What's the question?
Posted by Shipman 2004-11-19 6:18:52 PM||   2004-11-19 6:18:52 PM|| Front Page Top

#21 Shipman,

What about Israel?

What I meant is that Israel can't even afford to take one of these nuke warhead hits. Israel must take out the Iranian nuke threat. ABM is not going to cut it for Israel. But, protection for the U.S. is probably sufficient with massive rollouts of ABM's.
Posted by Poison Reverse 2004-11-19 6:37:24 PM||   2004-11-19 6:37:24 PM|| Front Page Top

#22 ... 350 Targets Must Be Hit

350 bombs or one REALLY big one
Posted by A Jackson 2004-11-19 6:54:43 PM||   2004-11-19 6:54:43 PM|| Front Page Top

#23 not all 350 have to be hit - that's hyperbole. Tip the canoe and let the mullahs slide over the side
Posted by Frank G  2004-11-19 6:59:53 PM||   2004-11-19 6:59:53 PM|| Front Page Top

#24 I say up the internal pressure first with a naval blockade of all Iranian oil shipments. Once things start stewing on the streets, pick off Natanz or Busheir and their largest naval, air force and Revolutionary Guards bases. That's the kind of canoe tipping that may get this deal done.
Posted by Tibor 2004-11-19 7:25:25 PM||   2004-11-19 7:25:25 PM|| Front Page Top

#25 I agree Frank. Realistically just take out the Revolutionary Guards, air defense and as many of the known WMD sites and let the house of cards collapse.
Posted by BillH 2004-11-19 7:28:37 PM|| [http://www.worldwar4.net]  2004-11-19 7:28:37 PM|| Front Page Top

#26 Martin Luther King once said something to the effect: "Never hesitate to take up pursuit of a goal, just because it will take a long time to achieve results - the time will pass anyway."

Amen. Let's get started on defanging Iran without further delay. It will be hard, it will take a long time, it will be expensive, it will cause backlash, it will cause seething, it will irritate our European "firends" etc. etc.

Yeah, yeah, yeah - OK, let's get on with it. Iran's strength and potency is increasng every day. They are downright evil mother-fuckers. They've had it coming since 1979. So, lets get started returning them to the stone age.

Start with a clear message:

To all good Iranians: A wise man once said: "All that it takes for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing." Your time has come. You good Iranians have 96 hours to rise up and clean house, and get the extremists out of power. After that, you will become collateral damage. 'Sorry about this, but if you don't handle this job on your own - immediately - we are going to handle it for you - and it won't be pretty.

So shall the Persian War of 2005-2006 unfold. Maybe use NORKland for bombing practice.
Posted by Lone Ranger 2004-11-19 8:15:39 PM||   2004-11-19 8:15:39 PM|| Front Page Top

#27  We and our true allies have Iran surrounded on 3 fronts. The northern front is only good for a mullah escape route, if that. This is not only a nuke question by ending Tehran's exporting oil for terrorism. The current Islamic terrorism in Iraq will be greatly reduced without Iranian 'assistance'.
Posted by Mark Espinola 2004-11-19 9:10:05 PM||   2004-11-19 9:10:05 PM|| Front Page Top

#28 Off-topic or abusive comments deleted]
Posted by Josh 2004-11-19 5:53:07 PM|| [http://www.aw.com]  2004-11-19 5:53:07 PM|| Front Page Top

17:55 Josh
17:55 Josh
17:55 Josh
17:55 Josh
17:55 Josh
17:53 Josh
17:53 Josh
17:53 Josh
17:53 Josh
17:53 Josh
17:52 Josh
17:51 Josh
23:58 Mike Sylwester
23:56 Frank G
23:54 Frank G
23:47 Mike Sylwester
23:43 Mark Espinola
23:42 Steve White
23:40 lex
23:35 True German Ally
23:31 Barbara Skolaut
23:30 lex
23:29 2b
23:29 Mike Sylwester









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