Don’t Bomb Iran

US prepares military blitz against Iran’s nuclear sites
By Philip Sherwell in Washington
(Filed: 12/02/2006)

Strategists at the Pentagon are drawing up plans for devastating
bombing raids backed by submarine-launched ballistic missile attacks
against Iran’s nuclear sites as a “last resort” to block Teheran’s efforts
to develop an atomic bomb.

Central Command and Strategic Command planners are identifying
targets, assessing weapon-loads and working on logistics for an
operation, the Sunday Telegraph has learnt.

They are reporting to the office of Donald Rumsfeld, the defence
secretary, as America updates plans for action if the diplomatic
offensive fails to thwart the Islamic republic’s nuclear bomb ambitions.
Teheran claims that it is developing only a civilian energy programme.

“This is more than just the standard military contingency assessment,”
said a senior Pentagon adviser. “This has taken on much greater
urgency in recent months.”

The prospect of military action could put Washington at odds with
Britain which fears that an attack would spark violence across the
Middle East, reprisals in the West and may not cripple Teheran’s
nuclear programme. But the steady flow of disclosures about Iran’s
secret nuclear operations and the virulent anti-Israeli threats of
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has prompted the fresh assessment
of military options by Washington. The most likely strategy would
involve aerial bombardment by long-distance B2 bombers, each armed
with up to 40,000lb of precision weapons, including the latest bunker-
busting devices. They would fly from bases in Missouri with mid-air
refuelling.

The Bush administration has recently announced plans to add
conventional ballistic missiles to the armoury of its nuclear Trident
submarines within the next two years. If ready in time, they would also
form part of the plan of attack.

Teheran has dispersed its nuclear plants, burying some deep
underground, and has recently increased its air defences, but Pentagon
planners believe that the raids could seriously set back Iran’s nuclear
programme.

Iran was last weekend reported to the United Nations Security Council
by the International Atomic Energy Agency for its banned nuclear
activities. Teheran reacted by announcing that it would resume full-
scale uranium enrichment - producing material that could arm nuclear
devices.

The White House says that it wants a diplomatic solution to the stand-
off, but President George W Bush has refused to rule out military
action and reaffirmed last weekend that Iran’s nuclear ambitions “will
not be tolerated”.

Sen John McCain, the Republican front-runner to succeed Mr Bush in
2008, has advocated military strikes as a last resort. He said recently:
“There is only only one thing worse than the United States exercising a
military option and that is a nuclear-armed Iran.”

Senator Joe Lieberman, a Democrat, has made the same case and Mr
Bush is expected to be faced by the decision within two years.

By then, Iran will be close to acquiring the knowledge to make an
atomic bomb, although the construction will take longer. The President
will not want to be seen as leaving the White House having allowed
Iran’s ayatollahs to go atomic.

In Teheran yesterday, crowds celebrating the anniversary of the 1979
Islamic revolution chanted “Nuclear technology is our inalienable right”
and cheered Mr Ahmadinejad when he said that Iran may reconsider
membership of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

He was defiant over possible economic sanctions.