Fox News says the US is crafting a plan to bomb Iran:
A recent decision by German officials to withhold support for any new sanctions against Iran has pushed a broad spectrum of officials in Washington to develop potential scenarios for a military attack on the Islamic regime, FOX News confirmed Tuesday.
Related: why did Israeli warplanes violate Syrian airspace the other day? One possible answer: they were trying to test out a possible route they could use for a bombing run against Iranian nuclear facilities. Another possibility, suggested by the Israeli website Debkafile:
DEBKAfile’s military experts conclude from the way Damascus described the episode Wednesday, Sept. 6, that the Pantsyr-S1E missiles, purchased from Russia to repel air assailants, failed to down the Israeli jets accused of penetrating northern Syrian airspace from the Mediterranean the night before.
The new Pantsyr missiles therefore leave Syrian and Iranian airspace vulnerable to hostile intrusion.
The Israeli plane or planes were described by a Syrian military spokesman as “forced to leave by Syrian air defense fire after dropping ammunition over deserted areas without causing casualties.” He warned “the Israeli enemy against repeating its aggressive action” and said his government reserved the right to respond in an appropriate manner.
Western intelligence circles stress that information on Russian missile consignments to Syria or Iran is vital to any US calculation of whether to attack Iran over its nuclear program. They assume that the “absolute jamming immunity” which the Russian manufactures promised for the improved Pantsyr missiles was immobilized by superior electronic capabilities exercised by the jets before they were “forced to leave.”
[snip]
The courage, daring and operational skills of the air crews must have been exceptional. They would have needed to spend enough time in hostile Syrian air space to execute several passes at varying altitudes under fire in order to test the Pantsyr-S1E responses. Their success demonstrated to Damascus and Tehran that their expensive new Russian anti-air system leaves them vulnerable.
In other words, if this analysis is correct, the Israelis, flying US-made planes, were testing out the sophisticated Russian-made antiaircraft system -- the same system American pilots would have to evade if the US attacked Iran from the air.
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A few questions for anyone who favors an American attack on Iran (these are directed at the respondents to this post, and at any neocons who may read this blog - not at Rod):
1. Some war supporters imagine that, since the Iranian theocracy is unpopular now at home, an American push will be all that is needed to get regime change. Have you forgotten how the US reacted to Pearl Harbor and to 9/11? Or is it only Americans who "rally round the flag" and forget their differences when their homeland is attacked?
2. If the Iranians are as cunning/fanatical/bent on world domination as you imagine, do you think they are not aware of the plans being made to attack their country? Why - especially if they are as crazy-bad as you say - would they not pre-emptively strike now ... rather than lose most of their military in an American/Israeli attack?
3. Have you forgotten that starting a war of aggression is a war crime, as was established in the post-World War II tribunals?
Lee
Ah, but Lee, war crimes and war crimes tribunals are created only by the victors, certainly not by the victims. You can forget about seeing Bush or any American politican in the dock in your lifetime.
Merely worrying that by tightening the dilemma around the US, pinching it harder against the domestic rock and the mid east hardplace, we make desperate measures more likely. Blowing up Iran is not without elegance but I think it's too dangerous to try it. On the other hand, it may be that our government has steelier nerve than I. We shall all see.
Iran is doomed. If the US does not do it, Israel will and if US does it, anyone who tries to bring a US president to trial for war crimes is probably commiting suicide. Nuclear superpowers do not get tried for anything and if it is Israel, the Mossad will cheerfully dispatch any jurist that foolish to his sulpherous reward.
The question is not whether Iran is going to be bombed into the stone age, but when and by whom.
Just why is it that they hate us so?
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