Hersh: Joint Chiefs Opposed to Iran Nuke Attack, Members of Congress Gung-

[cal04]

Hersh: Joint Chiefs Opposed to Iran Nuke Attack, Members of Congress Gung-Ho

A new report by Seymour Hersh finds that senior Bush administration officials are developing plans for a massive attack on Iran which could include nuclear weapons. Hersh points out that the Joint Chiefs of Staff — a panel of the highest-ranking military officials from each branch of the U.S. armed services — are strenuously opposed to the plan, so much so that some have threatened to resign if it goes forward:

Pentagon adviser on the war on terror…confirmed that some senior officers and officials were considering resigning over the issue. “There are very strong sentiments within the military against brandishing nuclear weapons against other countries,” the adviser told me. “This goes to high levels.” The matter may soon reach a decisive point, he said, because the Joint Chiefs had agreed to give President Bush a formal recommendation stating that they are strongly opposed to considering the nuclear option for Iran. “The internal debate on this has hardened in recent weeks,” the adviser said. “And, if senior Pentagon officers express their opposition to the use of offensive nuclear weapons, then it will never happen.”
But such advice hasn’t fazed the ultra-hawkish members of Congress, who now refuse to accept any plan that doesn’t include the use of nuclear weapons:

A senior member of the House Appropriations Committee…said that no one in the meetings “is really objecting” to the talk of war. “The people they’re briefing are the same ones who led the charge on Iraq. At most, questions are raised: How are you going to hit all the sites at once? How are you going to get deep enough?” (Iran is building facilities underground.) “There’s no pressure from Congress” not to take military action, the House member added. “The only political pressure is from the guys who want to do it.” … “These politicians don’t have a clue, and whenever anybody tries to get it out”—remove the nuclear option—“they’re shouted down.”

While senior military officials oppose the use of nuclear weapons, Hersh’s sources add that the idea “has gained support from the Defense Science Board, an advisory panel whose members are selected by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.”

http://www.thinkprogress.org/

[ellenfl]

1. waddya bet the dem mentioned in the article is lieberman. eom

[cali]

2. Actually, I think Jane Harmon is more likely. n/t

[Rose Siding]

11. She's in the House. The briefing, which included one dem was in the Senate

Par for gopers to embrace every war that blows by their wallets.

[Roland99]

3. That was my first thought when I read that part.

[hexola]

4. why doesn't someone get some guts,and stage a military coup?

It's happened in other countries!!!!!

[wookie294]

5. Peter Pace says Iran not an imminent threat

Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff, said today he has no evidence the Iranian government has been sending military equipment and personnel into neighboring Iraq.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/14/AR2006031401083.html

”Iran is a long way from needing any kind of military solution,” General Peter Pace, the Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said.

http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?F=1641349&C=mideast

[Lindsay]

9. I'm guessing Gen. Pace can be replaced, as

other generals have been before him.

If Chimpy and Rummy are hell-bent on nuking Iran, as they seem to be, they'll retire people until they find a general to agree with them. Or promote one.

[European Socialist]

6. If Israel came out against it--which they should--it would put an end to..

that type of talk. An attack on Iran is the end of the world as we know it. A nuclear attack will be the end of the world.

[Emit]

7. There was a post a day or two ago that did say Israel was against

an Iran attack -- something via Josh Marshall, I think.

[European Socialist]

10. Good-- Maybe our Congeresscritters will listen.

[leftchick]

8. WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, JR. Chairman Defense Science Board Commissioner is PNAC

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=William+Schneider%2C+Jr+neocon+pnac

and a neofreak...

<snip>

The chairman of the Defense Science Board is William Schneider, Jr., an Under-Secretary of State in the Reagan Administration. In January, 2001, as President Bush prepared to take office, Schneider served on an ad-hoc panel on nuclear forces sponsored by the National Institute for Public Policy, a conservative think tank. The panel’s report recommended treating tactical nuclear weapons as an essential part of the U.S. arsenal and noted their suitability “for those occasions when the certain and prompt destruction of high priority targets is essential and beyond the promise of conventional weapons.” Several signers of the report are now prominent members of the Bush Administration, including Stephen Hadley, the national-security adviser; Stephen Cambone, the Under-Secretary of Defense for Intelligence; and Robert Joseph, the Under-Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security.

[Mist]

12. I worry that the air force would be all for nuking--the air force is full

of deranged, bigoted "Rapture Xtians" these days, and the air force would be the ones to "deliver" the nuke.