Globe and Mail: A plan to attack Iran swiftly and from above

A plan to attack Iran swiftly and from above
A bombing campaign has been in the works for months - a blistering air war that would last anywhere from one day to two weeks

By Paul Koring
From Thursday's Globe and Mail

11/23/07 "Globe and Mail" -- -- WASHINGTON — Massive, devastating air strikes, a full dose of "shock and awe" with hundreds of bunker-busting bombs slicing through concrete at more than a dozen nuclear sites across Iran is no longer just the idle musing of military planners and uber-hawks.

Although air strikes don't seem imminent as the U.S.-Iranian drama unfolds, planning for a bombing campaign and preparing for the geopolitical blowback has preoccupied military and political councils for months.

No one is predicting a full-blown ground war with Iran. The likeliest scenario, a blistering air war that could last as little as one night or as long as two weeks, would be designed to avoid the quagmire of invasion and regime change that now characterizes Iraq. But skepticism remains about whether any amount of bombing can substantially delay Iran's entry into the nuclear-weapons club.

Attacking Iran has gone far beyond the twilight musings of a lame-duck president. Almost all of those jockeying to succeed U.S. President George W. Bush are similarly bellicose. Both front-runners, Democrat Senator Hillary Clinton and Republican Rudy Giuliani, have said that Iran's ruling mullahs can't be allowed to go nuclear. "Iran would be very sure if I were president of the United States that I would not allow them to become nuclear," said Mr. Giuliani. Ms. Clinton is equally hard-line.

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else they can't be nuke..who's the biggest fuckhead in the world with nukes at his monkey-thumbs?

Fucking sabre-rattling..bushites sure got them on a nose leash.

It's a home town paper. The nurse came by and asked me if I was OK, which I guess proves that I don't have a stone face.

Biden says that if George Bush attacks Iran without a formal declaration of war by Congress, the president must be impeached.

"If he takes the country to war in without a vote of Congress, which will not exist, then he should be impeached."

Waiting until AFTER an attack on Iran to impeach Bush/Cheney is immoral.

NOW. The impeachment hearings must begin NOW - immediately after Thanksgiving, before Christmas - they must be knocked flat on their asses and notice served that they are not to take any actions whatsoever that have anything to do with "defense".

Impeachment does not mean (necessarily) that they are removed from office - it does mean that the Dems have gotten their spines back and are a credible threat to the Bush/Cheney cabal.

Stating that "If he takes the country to war... then he should be impeached" -- at this point -- simply reads like more spinelessness.

Again, I do respect Biden, and he is ahead of many others in the Senate right now on this issue - but we need him to move way, way ahead - all the way to "impeachment hearings now."

of the same mind, unfortunately. I was just very encouraged to hear him even say the word, when none of the others have (except our hero, DK).

I also heard him say in a "meet and greet" video that they're currently compiling evidence against Bushco, so even if they feel now is not the right time to impeach, I'm hopeful that they're planning on nailing them at some point.

But again, I'm in agreement with you all the way on this.

EDIT to add -- remember during a debate he spoke of how little plutonium (or was it uranium? both?) Iran actually has? And I've also heard that they don't have the warheads, the delivery systems, etc., whatever it is that's needed to actually launch a nuke. It's inconceivable to me how Bushco could even entertain the thought they could get away with this...

If Iranians were offered a joint partnership in a natural uranium reactor project - say, similar to CANDU?

This way, there would be no need to enrich uranium, for starters. They can even use some types of "spent" nuclear fuel.

Kind of deflates the whole emerging emergency, I think...

And if they were caught trying to enrich uranium, we'd have a pretty good idea "why."