Tuesday, October 6, 2009
This is just a quick link to follow -- an "aside." These are links to interesting things that, for one reason or another, I didn't place into a full posting. Click the link to visit the full article. Go to the blog index for a regular listing of posts.
Jeffrey Goldberg: 'If You Think Iran is So Dangerous, Why Not Attack?' - '...As I've written before, I don't discount the long-term dangers of a nuclear-armed Iran. A nuclear program will help Iran achieve hegemony in the Muslim Middle East, and the gravitational pull of a such a powerful Iran will do great harm to the peace process, such as it is. And I obviously think that this is the most serious issue facing Israel, and one of the two or three most serious issues facing the U.S., today. But so far at least, no one has convinced me that an armed attack on Iran's facilities by Israel would a) work, and b) make the world a safer place and c) protect the Jewish people from a second Holocaust.' [He's right.]
Attack now is not technically prepared. US strategic bombers like B-2 were not accomodated to use 9-ton bombs, and ammunition is not ready: while aquisition of bunker-busters is done at all possible speed, only in late December they would have all needed bombs. And intelligence gathering and updating is also progresses not as fast as desirable. There are also logistical hurdles needed to mop up. Serious wars should not be done in haste. Otherwise, there is no sound reason for delay. Fighting Jihad is the challenge for decades, but untill enough bad guys are dead it will not progress. We need to kill them faster than they are reproduced, armed and trained - and they do all that really fast.