US govt under pressure to attack Iran: expert

[ECH1969]

A retired US Air Force colonel and well-known war gaming expert said on Monday the United States was under increasing pressure to use military force to destroy Iran’s atomic sites and would make a decision on this option soon.

Mr Gardiner said a US operation aimed at destroying Iran’s nuclear facilities would take less than a week and would not use any of the forces currently stationed in Iraq.

“This is an operation that would not take more than five evenings to do,” he said, adding that it would probably use Stealth bombers to bomb the facilities.

“I say before the November elections there will be a serious decision made in the United States,” he said.

http://www.dawn.com/2006/03/28/top18.htm

[madeline_con]

1. Here we go.

“This is an operation that would not take more than five evenings to do,”

This kind of speculation sounds damned familiar.


“I say before the November elections there will be a serious decision made in the United States,” he said.

How convenient.

[Toots]

45. I think the Iranians are ordering the flowers to throw at our troops

It will be a cakewalk just like Iraq that had no Army or air defense or Navy or anything. A real cake walk...

[Atman]

2. ...before the November elections there will be a serious decision made...

THIS is how the GOP plans on winning back the hearts and minds of Americans in time for the mid-terms?


Oh, wait...they don't actually COUNT the votes any more. Never mind.

[TexasLawyer]

15. The surprise "come from behind" Republican election win

will then be attributed to a surge of "patriotism."

[saigon68]

26. Buy Flags NOW

There won't be any left to buy, when this shit starts

[TomInTib]

3. And it will take about three Iranian rockets to lock up the Straits

of Hormuz and bring the industrialized world to its knees virtually overnight.

[serryjw]

7. ...and sink a tanker

ohhhhhhhh yes, Iran is going to stand by and do nothing?? WTF? Do they think the world is insane like they are?

This (election bushit) will blowback when oil goes to $200/barrel

[ladjf]

10. Iran has missiles and submarines and the knowhow to inflict

some "pain" as Cheney referred to it.

[Coastie for Truth]

4. Two questions

1. Is peak oil coming up on us that fast?

2. Are we that far behind on alternatives - hybrids, fuel cells, hydrogen economy, corn ethanol, cellulose ethanol, bio-diesel.

HOW COULD WE HAVE SCREWED UP ON "ENERGY" SO BAD THAT WE HAVE TO PAY IN AMERICAN BLOOD TO FEED OUR SOCCER MOMS' SUVS?

[megatherium]

39. Petroleum would a primary reason for attacking Iran.

But if that were the reason, it would be completely dumb-assed, because the resulting chaos would interrupt Iran's production if not much of the middle east's production. We would be hurting buckaroos if that happened.

[Coastie for Truth]

43. As NY Yankee Yogi Bera once said

De Ja Vu all over again.

[LynnTheDem]

5. Ah yes...Gardiner.

Wrong about Iraq; wrong about Iran.

He IS right about bush & Cabal, though.

[ladjf]

6. Unless Iran "has the goods" on the administration's working

with Al Queda as that said they did.

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[ladjf]

9. Could be. Arafat flat out stated that he had the proof the there

was a deal made with the Republicans to hold the hostages until after the election. That one act probably changed history.

But, back to the Iranian threat that they had proof the the administration was working in concert with the Al Queda, I have noticed a marked decrease in hot rhetoric since that statement was made by the Iranians.

Whatever it is, the Iranian President, who sounds like an idiot, seems to be sure that Bush isn't going to attack. Either he is on the take, or has information that Bush doesn't want out. It could be either of our suggestions or perhaps something else that we don't know about.

[serryjw]

11. Personally I think exposing Bushit 41

is worse. People will take any statement of relationship b/t the administration and Al Queda as Iranian propaganda.I got so berated (by a RW koolaid drinker) for stating that we trained OBL. People still don't believe that Saddam was not involved in 9-11. It hard to proved/disprove the boogyman

[ladjf]

13. There are forms of proof that are irrefutable. Remember that

Nixon didn't go down the tubes until the audio tapes were discovered. There is hard evidence somewhere that could nail Bush and the gang. We just don't have our hands on it and those who do are too busy enjoying their hush money to think about exposing Bush. The evidence may be more valuable undisclosed.

[serryjw]

14. Ohhhh come on...give a moment

after 5 years of happiness. Al Queda link would bring no happiness..........BUT Bushit 41 & the gang being exposed to what they are capable of.....now this is better than &^()*((*)

[ladjf]

16. If there was definite proof MIHOP, all hell would break loose.

[serryjw]

20. There is as far as many are concerned

There are just 100's of dots that must be connected. No one was ever held responsible for a modern day President being assassinated. They are good...we just need to be better.

[ladjf]

21. You aren't wrong. But, we need something a lot more concrete

than dots. WE NEED HARD EVIDENCE. Somebody out there has it. Don't we have one hero willing to step up and stop the mass ganglion of crimes?

[serryjw]

22. Not in this climate

They would be dead and so would their families. THEY engineered the killing of 3000 American citizens....How do you present this as evidence to a jury? I will cross the Rainbow Bridge with knowing as much as I need to.....everyone will have to learn it for themselves.

[CJCRANE]

32. No major MSM outlet would report it..

Look what happened to the Charlie Sheen story..it's totally disappeared.

[cliss]

18. Wow. What a story.

Well, it just goes to show you. The closer you look, the uglier it gets.

Thanks for posting.

[serryjw]

19. Ain't that the truth!

n/t

[ladjf]

42. Notice that the "story" was deleted.

[Strelnikov_]

12. Oh Yeah. It Will End There. No Blowback. Hell, I Bet The Iranians

just bend over and say "Thank you, sir, may I have another" as they shoot roses and hydrocarbons out their arses.

[HuffleClaw]

17. "...the United States was under increasing pressure...' ? ? ? ?

what utter crap is that? from WHO? at least THIS part is true: “I don’t think US policymakers understand that the military option won’t work,”

[annabanana]

31. my reaction exactly..

Under increasing pressure my ass...From the PNACers maybe... Maybe from Condi..

[Jacobin]

34. From AIPAC

Kristol, Rummy, Wolfowitz, Perle......ya know, the usual

[daleo]

23. And the Iranians will throw flowers. n/t

[Rex]

24. I could kick his ass in war games.

I've been saying it forever, so have a lot of people here at DU and other progressive boards. It could be done, we could turn the sand to glass and kill millions. Is that what we want? Is it what the Iranians want? Set aside the two regimes in charge for a minute - do average people really want more spilling of innocent blood, oh excuse me...'collateral damage'?

[Emillereid]

25. Only 5 evenings?? Fat chance!

Do they think that Iran is going to just roll over and play dead??

[lovuian]

27. We are going to war WWIII

its going to be the war for oil...

[apnu]

37. That has long been predicted by a lot of people.

Of course all we are going to see for a while is war for oil. The resource is rapidly running out, making is more expensive. Instead of focusing on other fuel sources, conservatives (and Detroit for that matter) think the path of least resistance is to steal it by way of military might. That's the crux of the whole PNAC neo-con movement.

This was set in motion decades ago, its just now time to pay the piper. What do you think all that military buildup with Regan was about? Does anybody seriously think all those tanks Regan ordered was to fight Russians? Come on!

[radfringe]

28. This is an operation that would not take more than five evenings to do....

5 evenings??? and then what?

another cake walk that ends up with us occupying another country until a future president cleans up another mess? How many more of our troops will die? How many will be wounded?

maybe instead of a "guest worker program" - bush can start a "guest fighter program" and encourage immigrants to join the military and if they survive one of his bone-head wars they get a greencard

[apnu]

38. There is no mess in Iraq to clean up

:sarcasm:

Seriously, Iraq has progressed to the point that there's nothing we can do but leave now and let the Iraq people kill each other off, which is inevitable should the US bail out at any time, now or 10 years from now. So in a sense there isn't anything to clean up, what we did to Iraq is like saying we can clean up after strip-mining. That's not going to happen.

[shadowknows69]

29. Well known war gaming expert?

Shit, I'm a war gaming expert and most of the US V Middle East Scenarios I've played don't always work out too freaking well for us.

[chrisfloyd]

30. Not going to happen

Iran will shut down the straight of Hormuz - it's a 35 mile bottleneck that 70 percent of the world's crude passes through.

Not only will oil from Iran be affected - but shipments from Kuwait, Iraq, Saudi, Bahrain and Qatar will be stopped.

The economic implications are too big for everyone in this quarrel. Oil at a hundred bucks a barrel will be cheap.

Tehran threatens to block Strait of Hormuz

Right before the session of the UN Security Council Tehran for the first time announced specific steps that it can take in case of international sanctions. On March 11, Interior Minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi made it clear that his country was ready not only to leave the world without Iranian oil and gas, but also block Strait of Hormuz, which is the main route of oil export (up to 90%) from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE and Iraq.

SNIP

http://www.regnum.ru/english/iran/604664.html

Iranian Interior Minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi, was quoted by the official Islamic Republic News Agency as saying Iran would use "any means" to resist. Pointing to Iran's oil resources and the Straits of Hormuz, he said: "We have control over the biggest and the most sensitive energy route of the world."

SNIP

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2006/03/21/2003298483

[seemslikeadream]

35. Welcome Chris!

Great that you are here :hi:

Always reading and posting your stuff

SLaD

[teryang]

33. Rupperts website is reporting some sort of accomodation

...between Iran and Iraq may be in the making. He somehow connects this to the opening of the Qatar exchange. The Iranian oil exchange seems to be off the table. I've read elsewhere that the Iranian theocracy never had any interest in an oil exchange in Iran because it required too much transparency and would involve some loss of control over their take.

http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/032706_rapprochment_summary.shtml

48 Hours That Changed the World – Oil Bourse Disappears; US-Iran OK Bi-Lateral Talks

by
Michael C. Ruppert


<March 27, 2006 1330 PST (FTW) - ASHLAND - March 20 and 21st, 2006 may prove to be historic days. The Iranian Oil Bourse set to open on March 20th, selling oil in Euros, was quietly “delayed,” instantly reducing the number of mounting international threats to dollar viability. The only press story we could find anywhere on the delay made it sound like Iran had never planned to open a bourse in the first place, despite about two-dozen stories from around the world last year describing its pending debut. The next day Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei agreed to bi-lateral talks with the US over Iraq, opening the way for the first US-Iranian “state-level” talks since the fall of the Shah of Iran. The moves come at a time when it seems the belligerent rhetoric from both sides couldn’t be more intense.>

[no_hypocrisy]

36. OK, exactly who or what is exerting the "increasing pressure

(on the United States) to use military force to destroy Iran?s atomic sites"? This issue must be addressed.

[mmonk]

40. That should turn Iraq into hamburger hill

as retaliation.

[mom cat]

41. US Govt "under pressure" ... from whom?

This also from the article:
“I think we may be looking at a (US) decision in six to nine months,” said Sam Gardiner, a military strategy expert who has taught at the US Army’s National War College.

“I say before the November elections there will be a serious decision made in the United States,” he said.

Mr Gardiner said that while Washington supported European and Russian efforts to use diplomacy to pressure Iran to abandon its nuclear enrichment programme, US officials were sceptical about the efficacy of sanctions or other diplomatic weapons.

Washington also believes the United Nations Security Council will fail to agree on a course of action against Tehran, he said.

[Javaman]

44. “This is an operation that would not take more than five evenings to do,”

but many years to unfuck all the problems that arise from it.

[Danieljay]

46. Perhaps thats why there is talk about withdrawing from Iraq. Iran will

begin coming across the border into Iraq and kicking our ass. Our troops are the one's who will suffer the most. George Bush has already opened up a can of worms. When he attacks Iran, I believe it to be the beginning of World War III. This man must be impeached before we are ALL screwed.

[Danieljay]

47. Another thing. Could this be the real reason gas prices are shooting up?

If we attack Iran, oil out of the middle east will slow to a crawl. Iran has a lot more military capabilities in the gulf than Iraq could ever dreamed of having. They could jam the ports and straits with mines and missiles, making oil from the region scarce, not to mention causing environmental catastrophies by sinking tankers.

[baby_mouse]

48. What's the current "evenings" to "decades" exchange rate these days? NT

Pathetic. Just pathetic.