July 23, 2005
Iran: Bush’s next battleground
If Fafblog! takes something seriously—more or less—you just know it’s gonna be a whole lotta trouble. From Justin Logan of the Cato Institute:
According to Philip Giraldi, writing in the new issue (not online) of the American Conservative, it’s to nuke Iran:The Pentagon, acting under instructions from Vice President Dick Cheney’s office, has tasked the United States Strategic Command (STRATCOM) with drawing up a contingency plan to be employed in response to another 9/11-type terrorist attack on the United States. The plan includes a large-scale air assault on Iran employing both conventional and tactical nuclear weapons. Within Iran there are more than 450 major strategic targets, including numerous suspected nuclear-weapons-program development sites. Many of the targets are hardened or are deep underground and could not be taken out by conventional weapons, hence the nuclear option. As in the case of Iraq, the response is not conditional on Iran actually being involved in the act of terrorism directed against the United States. Several senior Air Force officers involved in the planning are reportedly appalled at the implications of what they are doing—that Iran is being set up for an unprovoked nuclear attack—but no one is prepared to damage his career by posing any objections.
As Logan points out, this might—just might—be a story the mainstream media ought to pick up, particularly as some of those suspected nuclear facilities are in Tehran itself:
So does this mean we are going to nuke the capital of Iran? And in this case would we parachute in exiles to run the place afterward, or attempt a colonial administration? What effect would the radioactive fallout have on our decision?
I mean, surely the NYT and WaPo can find a lede here: “US has plan to nuke Tehran if another 9/11.” Can we get at least a bloody story out of this?
Probably not until a large chunk of the blogosphere starts poking the pain points.
Posted by Stephen at 12:33 AM in Terrorism | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
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