by Down the Middle – April 11, 2006
Finally, via Seymour Hersh and his recent article in The New Yorker Magazine, the American public is becoming aware of the White House’s intent to use the B61-11, nuclear “bunker-buster”, as part of a sustained bombing campaign against Iran…and to do so, over the strong objections raised by many of our senior, military planners, including members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The administration insists that the use of this weapon system is absolutely necessary to knock out Iran’s research and development programs that are bunkered deep underground…but it also claims that the deadly, radioactive fallout from these ungodly devises will be contained within the bowels of the target site, even though a Congressional investigation has already found that the “blow-back” contamination would be virtually the same as a ground burst of the same kilo-tonnage.
As a manner of justifying this nuclear, “first strike”, the Administration claims the mini-nukes must be used, simply because of the “lack of intelligence” {I could really say something really funny, about that}. We do not know the extent of the Iranian bunkers and therefore, cannot be assured of destroying the centrifuges or any fissile materials, with conventional bombs.
My question is, does this administration’s “lack of intelligence” prevent us from finding the door? You know, one of those flat, rectangular things with that “turny” thing on it. We do have conventional bunker-busters that will penetrate up to four floors and “close ‘em down. If the door’s gone, you can’t get in, to work…and as they have already said that this would be a “sustained” bombing campaign, I suppose we could “drop by” and “drop another” {conventional bomb}, say…every Monday morning, at first light.
Of course, even without the nukes, the air campaign could turn out to be a grave mistake. Going to war with Iran may not turn out to be the cakewalk, so many seem to believe it to be.
Retired General Anthony Zinni, the former head of US Central Command recently stated, "Any military plan involving Iran is going to be very difficult. We should not fool ourselves to think it will just be a strike and then it will be over," said Zinni.
"The Iranians will retaliate, and they have many possibilities in an area where there are many vulnerabilities, from our troop positions to the oil and gas in the region that can be interrupted, to attacks on Israel, to the conduct of terrorism."
Like the General says, the possibilities are almost endless.
Our first strikes will have to take out the Iranian “command and control” bunkers and relative air defense systems, along with the nuclear research and development bunkers…but should also include storage and launcher sites for Iran’s indefensible SS-N-22 “Sunburn” and SS-NX-26 “Yakhonts” anti-ship cruise missiles that would soon threaten the U.S. 5th Fleet, not to mention the medium range, Shahab 3, ballistic missiles which are already known to have a range of 810 miles {far enough to attack within most all of Israel} and reportedly, now modified to an increased range of 1,250 miles {Two thousand kilometers}, bringing many parts of Europe and Russia within reach.
Should Iran attempt to counter with sending their army against us, in Iraq, our forces already in theater {including air support} should be able to contain them…but if our casualty rates were to become unacceptable, we could easily find ourselves going “tactical” {battlefield nukes}.
Even more likely is that Iran will attempt to scuttle a tanker in the Straights of Hormuz, blocking all Persian Gulf oil exports and driving the price of gasoline through the roof. This would, of course, hurt the Iranians, too…but watching the Persian Empire being reduced to rubble around them, they will not hesitate. If they should block the channel, each day that the area is “too hot” for Haliburton, is another day that fuel prices will continue to rise.
Undoubtedly, Iran will use everything in its arsenal to retaliate, including terrorism. Although everyone knows this strike is meant to keep Iran from possessing “the bomb”, it might interest you to know that Iran already has a bomb. In fact, it has two or three “backpack” nukes, sold to them years ago by an enterprising Russian General, back when the wall came down. Indeed, they are small nukes, only capable of taking out an area of no more than a couple of blocks…but when you think in terms of American cities and skyscrapers, we are still talking about thousands of immediate casualties and the contamination of two or three “downtowns”, somewhere in America.
To me, the idea of Iran producing and possessing nuclear weapons is a truly scary thought…but be advised...like Iran, we will pay a high price for their removal. Exactly what price remains to be seen…..by dawn’s early light.
Last updated 12/04/2006
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