FPIF: Iran: Thinking the Unthinkable

[marmar]

Iran: Thinking the Unthinkable

Conn Hallinan | January 15, 2007

Editor: John Feffer, IRC





Foreign Policy In Focus
www.fpif.org

Is Israel, supported by the Bush Administration, preparing to launch an atomic war against Iran? On January 7, the London Sunday Times claimed that the Israeli government is planning to attack Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities with tactical nuclear weapons. While the Israeli government denies the story, recent statements by top Israeli officials and military figures -- along with recent White House threats against Iran and Syria and a shuffling of American commanders in the Middle East -- suggest that the possibility is real.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert calls Iran an “existential threat,” and Deputy Minister of Defense Ephraim Sneh recently said, “The time is approaching when Israel and the international community will have to decide whether to take military action against Iran.” An Israeli Defense Force (IDF) official told the Jerusalem Post that “only a military strike by the U.S. and it allies will stop Iran obtaining nuclear weapons.”

Brigadier General Oded Tira, former commander of the IDF’s artillery units, not only urges an attack on Iran, but because “President Bush lacks the political power to attack Iran,” Israel and its supporters “must lobby the Democratic Party and U.S. newspaper editors” to lay the groundwork for such an attack. Tira says that if the Americans don’t act, “we’ll do it ourselves.”

According to the Times, the attack will use a combination of conventional laser-guided bombs and one kiloton tactical nuclear “bunker busters.” The targets would be the centrifuges at Natanz, a uranium conversion plant near Isfahan, and the heavy water reactor at Arak.

One source told the Times, “As soon as the green light is given, it will be one mission, one strike and the Iranian nuclear project will be demolished.”

Bluster or Bunker Buster?

Bombast to scare the Iranians? Maybe, but a number of pieces have fallen into place over the past month that suggest that the Bush administration is also seeking to widen the Middle East conflict, and that time may be running out for Iran.

In his January 10 speech announcing an escalation in Iraq, the president singled out Iran and Syria as aiding “terrorists,” and warned, “We will seek out and destroy the networks” that are training and arming “our enemies in Iraq.” According to The New York Times, the president ordered several raids against diplomats and advisors in Iraq, accusing them of supplying advanced improvised explosive devices to Iraqi insurgents. ....(more)

The rest of the piece is at: http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/3910

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

1. All nuclear weapons should be made illegal and destroyed.

No country has a right to use them.