Israel plans nuclear strike on Iran

[John of Phoenix]

Just so you're not surprised...


ISRAEL has drawn up secret plans to destroy Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities with tactical nuclear weapons.
Two Israeli air force squadrons are training to blow up an Iranian facility using low-yield nuclear “bunker-busters”, according to several Israeli military sources.

The attack would be the first with nuclear weapons since 1945, when the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Israeli weapons would each have a force equivalent to one-fifteenth of the Hiroshima bomb.

Under the plans, conventional laser-guided bombs would open “tunnels” into the targets. “Mini-nukes” would then immediately be fired into a plant at Natanz, exploding deep underground to reduce the risk of radioactive fallout.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2535310,00.html

[JimD]

Israel nuking a muslim nation. I find the idea very unsettling.

[jack grebe]

If the U.S. can own a middle east country, why not Israel? They want oil too

[Phillip Allen]

only a matter of time...too bad

[John of Phoenix]

Unsettling. Yeah.
But hey, who knows, cheney could still beat 'em to the punch.

[Tim_H]

Not very secret is it? heh

"Military analysts said the disclosure of the plans could be intended to put pressure on Tehran to halt enrichment, cajole America into action or soften up world opinion in advance of an Israeli attack."

[ishmael]

Um, John you should know better than raise this alarm. Of course, Israel has such plans. So do we, so do the Chinese and the Russians, probably. Military planners have to have something to do.

Our war plan A up until almost Pearl was for a naval war with Britain. They expended a bunch of memos and carbon paper on that one.

P.S. I walked around a fort from the mid 19th century a couple days ago. Fort Knox, named for our first secretary of war IIRC. A huge granite edifice on the the Penobscot River, a couple big guns still in defilade. They built it, over twenty years, at a huge cost to the taxpayer. They built it because Bangor was sacked by the Brits in 1812. They built it for an illusion, that someone might invade the Penobscot again. Boy, when it was bristling it must have been a sight! The furnaces to heat shot were still there. Rifle slits that were of use only if the main defenses had been overrun. A classic mid 19th century fort. Apparently it was manned until WWI.

[Phillip Allen]

Ish...ill-jay will call you a liar if you can't prove it beyond his personal rebuttal

[paladin]

I wonder if I can get a small dialysis machine that will work on a small boat....it's getting dangerous to live in this hemisphere....:D

[Norman Bernstein]

This tired old story circulates every now and then.

It will never happen... not as a first strike. If they did, the US would be forced to back away from them... and several billion Muslims, who up to now have mostly been fighting each other, would suddenly have a far more pressing common interest, and would obliterate Israel on the ground. Not even Dubya would propose what would be necessary to prevent it... a draft? Huge taxes to pay for a massive war and subsequent occupation of most of the middle east?

Not gonna happen.

[Phil Heffernan]

This tired old story circulates every now and then.

It will never happen... not as a first strike. If they did, the US would be forced to back away from them... and several billion Muslims, who up to now have mostly been fighting each other, would suddenly have a far more pressing common interest, and would obliterate Israel on the ground. Not even Dubya would propose what would be necessary to prevent it... a draft? Huge taxes to pay for a massive war and subsequent occupation of most of the middle east?

Not gonna happen.

I'm with Norm...This seems like an Internet C&P story...I don't buy the liklihood for a second...

PH

[John of Phoenix]

You should remember that this is the same paper, The Sunday Times of London, that back in 1986 broke the story of Israel secretly acquiring a nuclear arsenal. They have the nose to get the story and they've been right before.

Will the Israelis do anything? They smacked that Iraqi reactor and lived to brag about it.
dubya's been the most accommodating US president in history and he's itching for the Apocalypse.
Who knows.

[LeeG]

Come on John, you know the decider wouldn't put 150,000 troops at risk by accomodating to such an impossible mission.

[John of Phoenix]

An interesting point, but if he's shooting for the Apocalypse...so what.

[ishmael]

Well, if the Israelis hit the Iranians, which would involve multiple strikes, and wouldn't work because the Iranians have spread their program over many sites, I guess I'll get to work putting up flowered wall paper in my bomb shelter.

Don't get me wrong, it's by no means impossible.

[LeeG]

Penobscot is a target?

[Tom W.]

I agree it is far from impossible. We are so bogged down in Iraq & Afghan we are of little use against the Iranians, but for those crazies to have nuclear weapons is almost as scary as the North Koreans with the same. The world has never been more dangerous.

[Lucky Luke]

This tired old story circulates every now and then.

It will never happen... not as a first strike. If they did, the US would be forced to back away from them... and several billion Muslims, who up to now have mostly been fighting each other, would suddenly have a far more pressing common interest, and would obliterate Israel on the ground. Not even Dubya would propose what would be necessary to prevent it... a draft? Huge taxes to pay for a massive war and subsequent occupation of most of the middle east?

Not gonna happen.

Sorry Norman, but just THIS morning, the ambassador of Israel in France was the guest of a TV and said that Israel is considering this option as the NUMBER ONE defense against Iran uranian enrichment which, he said, WILL lead to the nuclear bombing of Israel.
In other words: we SHALL shoot first! Very clear!

Then all your catastrophe scenario becomes something quite different, and it gives something like that:

It will happen... as a first strike. When they do it, the US will back them up (that s what I believe, alas!)... and several billion Muslims, who up to now have mostly been fighting each other, will suddenly have a far more pressing common interest, and will obliterate Israel on the ground....aso....aso...

When, in the 60s , Israel did their blitzkrieg to expand their territories, they started the third world war . That was the analyse by American hated: De Gaulle. Proves right today!

Add to this the American attitude which clearly shows to ALL the muslim world that they are THEIR ennemies, and you don t have to question yourselves anymore as to what will happen.

War on terror you said? You have no idea of what you are talking about!

Its a pity the sensible people amongst you have not decided a war on ERROR!

[Peter Malcolm Jardine]

I agree it is far from impossible. We are so bogged down in Iraq & Afghan we are of little use against the Iranians, but for those crazies to have nuclear weapons is almost as scary as the North Koreans with the same. The world has never been more dangerous.


Almost as dangerous as a fundamentalist idiot at the helm of a nation that has 60% of the worlds military capacity.;)

[ishmael]

I say, let's get it on. I'm tired of waiting. Let's tear down the dome of the rock and rebuild the temple. Let's nuke 'em now, before they can fight back.

[Stiletto]

Has Israel ever confirmed that it has the bomb?

If a country has the bomb and doesnt announce it, there is no way it can be a deterrent.
If this is in fact the case, Israel has the bomb for first strike purposes.

I suppose hearsay about such a weapon is a good enough deterrent.

[George.]

...low-yield nuclear “bunker-busters”, ... equivalent to one-fifteenth of the Hiroshima bomb.

They have one kiloton bunker busters, even though they have never tested a nuke? I wonder where they got the know-how... ;)

Such a bomb has to work, of course. Otherwise, they would be handing Iran a couple of duds, stuffed with high-tech detonators and highly enriched, already shaped bits of uranium...

[Milo Christensen]

They have one kiloton bunker busters, even though they have never tested a nuke? I wonder where they got the know-how... ;)

Such a bomb has to work, of course. Otherwise, they would be handing Iran a couple of duds, stuffed with high-tech detonators and highly enriched, already shaped bits of uranium...

Much of the enabling technology came from or through France. Implosion tests (tests of the detonating high explosives and timing, without fissile material) were conducted in the Negev. Implosion tests are really all that's necessary to know that your bombs are going to work. An unexplained nuclear explosion in the Indian Ocean is a probable test conducted in cooperation with South Africe.

The Israeli bombs will work.

[Keith Wilson]

Oh it'll work. The US builds good bombs, and the Israelis are no slouches either.

I think this is still part of "the great game", however, rather than a serious possibility (yet). The want tol et the Iranians know that they might; a bit more pressure.

[LeeG]

nuke bunker busters is an effing myth,,the idea being that the bomb could bury down far enough to not throw up a radioactive plume, can't happen, you'd have to go down 1000' or more. If anyone is dropping nukes they're going to make a hole with fallout. The nuke bunker buster was just another program to play with money and stuff.
That would take the neo-cons doctrine one step beyond.
GW would have to be like the DrStrangelove to consider this acceptable.

[Scott Rosen]

Don't you think the US has secret plans to nuke Iran if the present Iranian government develops a bomb and the ability to deliever it? You can be sure we have plans to use nuclear weapons against Iran, China, Russia, North Korea, India, Pakistan, to name a few. Every nation with a nuclear arsenal must have plans to use it under similar contingencies. To have nukes and no plan on how and when to use them would be irresponsible and an invitation to disaster. One way to avoid nuclear war is to tell your enemies and friends exactly under what circumstances you will use the nukes. You want the guy with his finger on the button to be operating on complete and true information.

Israeli public announcements of "secret" plans cannot be taken at face value. This sort of "leak" had to have been coordinated with its allies. Iran surely understands that a statement like that from Israel is really a threat by the US, UK and France.

The Israeli bombing of the Iraqi nuke facilities back in 1980 or 81 was done with the assistance of the US, Great Britain and France. France probably gave the most assistance to that project, in the form of intelligence, because it was France who supplied the reactors in the first place.

Even in the politics of nuclear weapons, knowledge is still the strongest weapon.

I'll bet our intl on Iran is nowhere near as good. The Iranians are smart. They learned from the Iraqi's lesson. The Iranians would never be so stupid as to involve the US or any of its allies in its nuclear program.

Oh, and by the way, why do you think the US recently agreed to supply nuclear technology to India? Not out of the goodness of our heart. It's because we want to know exactly what India's capabilities are, and where they are located.