What was the cost of Israel's bombing of Iraqi nuclear facilities in 1981? What would the have happened if Iraq had continued with the nuclear program? Nuclear weapons are not only the ones that go BANG! very loud. They can also be a normal HE device that spreads a cloud of radioactive nuclear waste. The big danger is that Iran, led by an irresponsible, extemist, possibly lunatic government, will pass nuclear material to terrorists. I'm sure that Bush dreams that one morning he will tune into CNN and hear that Israel has bombed the Iranian nuclear facilities. The best soluion is probably to hit Iran's suppliers, either by sanctions, or "Special Ops" doing sabotage or worse.

http://solomon2.blogspot.com/2006/01/nuke-iran-syria-lebanon.html A practical present-day dilemma is almost upon us: I imagine that Israel will soon have to decide whether or not to attack Iranian and Arab nuclear installations with Israel's own nuclear weapons.

And will be damned if we aren't! http://www.biu.ac.il/SOC/besa/perspectives12.html

Really? And just how do you plan on doing this, Bubby? Cato

Me? I'll just sit under the table with my gas mask on like last time, I guess.

I certainly hope you are correct. I am an American with a very critical opinion of President Bush because he has allowed Iran and Syria to take direct action resulting in the deaths of my countrymen deployed in Iraq - and has done nothing about it. There are only two possibilities: 1. Bush is enduring the foreign intervention because his plan is to strike suddenly and decisively at Iran and does not wish the enemy to be on guard when this happens, or allow Iran to garner international sympathy that will make American military action more difficult geopolitically. 2. Bush lacks the nerve to take more than token action for anything beyond Iraq and intends to accept a nuclear Iran if the only final alternative is risky military action. Thus, punishing Iran for its poison daggers in Iraq would be counterproductive for retribution in the form of nulcear blackmail could be quite severe. When I size it up, coupled with Bush's foolish insistence that Iraq once had WMD but won't publicly acknowledge that those weapons are now in Syria and Lebanon (where they are actually in more dangerous hands thus necessitating American military action by his administration's own logic) I tend to lean towards the second possibility. I pray I am wrong. Either we strike Iran now, while there is still time, or we live in constant fear of nuclear terrorism forever.

I cannot stand Iran or Syria. Personally, both countries need to be expelled from the UN. I doubt the US attacks Iran. Unless Iran attacks us first or Israel. This is a diplomatic nightmare. China and Russia definately support Iran and will not do anything to support any military action from the US. Both Russia/China also may aid Iran if we did attack Iran. No doubt Syria will help Iran. Both Iran and Syria have defense pacts to help each other. Iran continues to dig a hole with the UN. Iran came out today and will resume (As if did they ever stop) research on nuclear technology. Iran also had bio/chem exercises with the military this weekend. The president of Iran is apparantly crazy or a fanatic, or both. As it stands today, I do believe the US has put final plans for attacking Iran in place. Weapons/Aircraft are already in place. I hope their is no war here. If Iran continues along this path, they will have nuclear weapons soon. Then what? The president of Iran already came out and stated Israel needs to be wiped off the planet. Diplomacy in this case, will never work in my opinion. Perhaps it is time to attack Iran. May God help us. I have no doubt the US can defeat Iran easily. Peace Folks. Admiral Kirk

We can bomb Iran-- that's true, but what afterwards? Seriously, the military question is easy to answer-- we can bomb Iran to any degree we wish to, from pure counter force, to a general campaign of counter infrastructure-- but what is our ultimate goal? To destroy their warfighting potential, destablize the regime, open the way for a general invasion (which is a very bad idea). to use the threat of overwhelming bombing to force concessions? As for the comments about Russia/China-- they support Iran because it's a customer, provides oil and is, honestly a way to tweak the U.S. nose (And we do the same for some nations). They DON"T, I believe support them to the point of risking a direct conflict with the U.S., nor will they be happy with Iran, whatever they say in public, if Iran puts them in that position.

From the not-really reliable debka.com website: ------------------------------------------------------- "Head of Iranian Revolutionary Guards ground forces Ahmad Kazemi and 12 deputies killed in plane crash in NW Iran January 9, 2006, 10:35 AM (GMT+02:00) The small Falcon executive jet came down near Oroumieh, 900 km north of Tehran, according to an announcement from Iran’s state news agency. DEBKAfile’s Tehran sources note the high importance of the dead commander who was appointed only three months ago. Another of the victims was head of the RG intelligence branch. Kazemi, for six years chief of the RG air force, was one of the fathers of Iran’s aggressive military doctrine. Our Iran experts’ first premise is that the crash was engineered by opposition factions to president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad within the regime in an effort to stem the increasing encroachments of state institutions by his backers, the radical Revolutionary Guards." -------------------------------------------------------- Well, that's about the whole Pasdaran command structure spread thin on a hillside, isn't it? Maybe debka.com knows something about whomever inside the Iranian regime that might have boobytrapped the Falcon, but it might just as well have been AESA-fried by "something stealthy" flying in from over the Turkish or the Azeri border...

The crash site is conveniently located near the Turkish and the Iraqi-Kurd borders. To look it up at Google Earth, type: "Orumiyeh, Iran". Or look up: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2d/Kurdish_lands_92_cropped.jpg Orumyeh, as well as Lake Urmia's western shore, is claimed by the Kurds on some websites, and was apparently included in the short-lived Kurdish Republic of Mahabad. While it might be more Azeri than Kurdish, the place is certainly not Persian: http://i-cias.com/e.o/orumiyeh.htm