Pentagon ‘three-day blitz’ plan for Iran

[cullen2382]

Source: Times UK

THE Pentagon has drawn up plans for massive airstrikes against 1,200 targets in Iran, designed to annihilate the Iranians’ military capability in three days, according to a national security expert.

Alexis Debat, director of terrorism and national security at the Nixon Center, said last week that US military planners were not preparing for “pinprick strikes” against Iran’s nuclear facilities. “They’re about taking out the entire Iranian military,” he said.

Debat was speaking at a meeting organised by The National Interest, a conservative foreign policy journal. He told The Sunday Times that the US military had concluded: “Whether you go for pinprick strikes or all-out military action, the reaction from the Iranians will be the same.” It was, he added, a “very legitimate strategic calculus”.

President George Bush intensified the rhetoric against Iran last week, accusing Tehran of putting the Middle East “under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust”. He warned that the US and its allies would confront Iran “before it is too late”.



Read more: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article2369001.ece

---

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't this kind of how we started the Iraq war. Hit em hard and heavy and declared victory?

[WindRavenX]

1. So, I've been out of the news loop for a few days...so we're really going to bomb em ?

:scared:

[daninthemoon]

5. The only news loop has been about Craig. What could possibly

be more important? It's just another war.

[seriousstan]

14. Yes. this news link has been predicting this more often the Joe for Clark.

Both have been consistently wong.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

17. No... NOT "we're"-- "THEY'RE" going to bomb em.

Nobody here is going to have anything to do with this madness. Much good may it do us.

There is blood on the hands of the Democratic Congress, and they're about to get much, much bloodier.

May they burn in hell for their betrayal of America.

[wtmusic]

2. Shock and Awe 2007

What will they call it this time? Rumor has it "Prelude to Disaster II" has been completely ruled out.

[dipsydoodle]

3. Correct me..........................

Yes - it was called shocking whore or something like that anyway.

[Whoa_Nelly]

4. Don't you just love how our national security is ignored?

Big plans to start a war that may never end (or will end because our globe is too fucked up after a while), and the entire world gets to know.

One would think the publishing of this sort of news would act as a catalyst for someone or some group to make a major move on our nation.

The thugs are at the helm. If this strike happens, the consequences by the responses from other nations will be nothing short of the new global war.

Attack Iran, and attack on Israel will follow. Attack Israel, and Syria, Pakistan, and Russia will become involved, with China most likely to follow as they also ahve vested interest in the ME.

NSPD-51 will be put into action here. Soon to come, m sure there are more surprises from the BushCo/PNAC Imperialists for US citizens.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/05/20070509-12.html

[cliss]

6. It's not going to happen.

Now I don't doubt Cheney WANTS to bomb Iran back to the stone age. he probably dreams about it at night, and has tears in his eyes because he's not able to do it.

Why not?
Why can't he just go in there, right about now when the US economy is about to crater because of the subprime mortgage Black Hole. (hm, interesting timing eh?). If Cheney were to actually do it, this is what would happen:

1) Iran would immediately block off the straits of Hormuz. That would block off about 60% of the world's oil transport. It would bring the US economy to its knees, very quickly. Also Europe and japan which is dependent on that oil. Without oil, we go back to the horse & buggy days.

2) Iraq would become an flaming inferno. The Shia's would start an attack on the US troops that would make the fighting right now look like kindergarten. Don't forget: the Shi'as killed 26,000 UK troops back in 1939 in ONE DAY because they were so pissed.

3) There would be a massive retaliation of terrorist activity, worldwide. It would be seen as an attack on the muslim world, which is 1.1 BILLION that's 4 to every 1 of us Americans.

4) China & Russia would retaliate very quickly. Russia is already allied with Iran. China get a lot of its oil from Iran, also Japan gets its oil from there.

It would basically be the start of WW3. Ain't gonna happen.

[Warren Stupidity]

8. I don't think your points are totally valid.

1) the straits: the US Navy has been preparing for this since the 80s. Unless the Iranian anti-ship missiles are much better than thought, the Navy will be up to keeping the gulf open.

2) that is really why we put more troops into Baghdad. We've reducecd our efforts to controlling Baghdad, cut deals with the sunni militias in al anbar, and are all set to take on the shiite militias. This will be a mess but probably not a military disaster.

3) shiites are a vast minority of the muslim population. The entire muslim population of the planet is probably about as angry and outraged at the US as it can be, invading yet another muslim nation is unlikely to make this worse, although it certainly will not make it better.

4) China and Russia will stand back and watch us self destruct.

[sofa king]

24. I would also add that...

....The United States has caused a worldwide concrete shortage for years now, pouring it into over a dozen permanent bases in Iraq which can be held with small American forces while everything else goes to hell. And....

...They need those bases because airstrikes will be only a prelude to an invasion down the coast of Iran, where most of Iran's oil and natural gas is. The pretense will be the Iranian nuclear plant in Bushehr, but the real objective is underneath it: 38 billion barrels of newly discovered and totally undeveloped oil reserves which are just what Halliburton needs to keep its development business in the black.

[Richard D]

9. You're assuming . . .

. . . that these people are sane.

[kestrel91316]

13. Thank you.

[kestrel91316]

12. They DON'T CARE if the US economy craters. They will still have that

ranch in Paraguay with unlimited water to run to when the rest of us are paying the price for their wars.

[Chomskyite]

19. I'm afraid this calculus just doesn't apply

. . . unless the leaders in question are rational actors. They have demonstrated they're not--many times.

[Telly Savalas]

20. In which case we can through any ludicrous notion out there

and claim it as a reasonable possibility to be feared.

For example, I suspect Bush plans to nuke Canada. It'd be a silly thing to do, but the Bush Administration has proven itself to be irrational.

Moreover, I can take the next step and claim that anybody who doesn't share my fear is naive and is helping promote Cheney's evil agenda towards our sisters and brother to the North.

[ronnie624]

26. Reality makes your theory fall to pieces.

In reality, the Western corporate political power structure does not seek to control the oil reserves of Canada - primarily because it already does control them. It does, however, seek control of oil production in the Middle East.

As irrational as the Administration and its supporters are, they do have a motive for their actions.

[Warren Stupidity]

7. I don't think they have a plan for after they blow everything up.

I can't even comprehend what that plan would be. We simply don't have the troop strength to invade and occupy Iran while we are occupying Iraq. Our 170,000 + 100,000 mercs are just barely keeping the lid on Baghdad. Unless the Pentagon is playing a big game of deception, all they can do is really piss the Iranians off.

[daninthemoon]

10. They still don't have a plan for everything they blew up in Iraq.

[Countdown_3_2_1]

11. I think Iran was the entire point of invading Iraq

Look at whats happening. We've been preparing for a blitz for a few years now, and we've been moving munitions into Iraq and Afghanistan for more than a year now.
Look at the carrier group build up.
Look at the SURGE. Do you really think that was for insurgents?

The entire * Presidency has been building up to this point.

AND there is some law that lets a president use every military means for a short period of time without congressional approval. If the threat of Iran can be eliminated in a week without approval...than YES * will do it.

Pelosi already turned down impeachment proceedings. Do ya really think she has the guts to stand up to * this time?

If Leiberman switches control of the senate to the GOP...nothing will happen. And the only consequences will be Cindy picketing the new Texas presidential library.

The only light at the end of the tunnel I see is a Democratic Landslide in 08. But the new president will have a heck of a time getting the world to trust the US ever again.

[Massachusetts]

15. Why would ANY "Democrat" want to inherit the MESS that Bu$hco is going to leave our country in?

[THUNDER HANDS]

16. I doubt we'll bomb Iran

i'm pretty sure it's unprecidented for an end-of-term president to start a war less than 2 years before he leaves office. Iraq was less than 2 years into his first term.

This is saber-rattling to pump up the Iran threat and give the GOP an issue heading into '08. An issue they haven't fucked up yet that they can run on "solving."

[ohio2007]

18. We won't

but some folks like to whip themselves into a frenzy about it every five or six months.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=1717174&mesg_id=1717174

Folks on record suggest it also

http://www.counterpunch.org/solomon04122007.html

[Kip Humphrey]

21. Fasten your seatbelts: the Iranium War is about to begin.

[HuffleClaw]

25. as i recall people 'took to the streets' BEFORE the iraq war

in record numbers. the media of course, did their best to ignore it.

[4dsc]

22. So will you take to the streets if this happens

or will you sit by and watch it on the nightly news..

[HuffleClaw]

23. “They’re about taking out the entire Iranian military”

you'd have THOUGHT they'd have learned SOMETHING from the iraq debacle. but nooooooo, they are happily repeating every mistake but this time the stakes are dramatically higher. personally, i'm wondering if bush simply wants the opportunity to use nukes in a war.

[Generator]

27. I wondered if I was crazy

Apparently only Democracy NOW was reporting this.

GEE-the news you get in old London as opposed to here. Of course there's no sex, much less GAY sex involved. No celebrities either. DAMN.

This confirms all our worst fears. Cheney is busy.