random rants and references

Last night's post on cartoons and nukes may have been a tad academic based on the more recent news from the UK Telegraph that US prepares military blitz against Iran's nuclear sites . It reports that: "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.

"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.""

Well, with Ahmadinejad removing UN seals, restarting uranium enrichment and making speeches of about Iran's willingness to change its policy about the NPT (and, by implication, its restraint to only peaceful uses of nuclear energy), this is not unexpected. What is odd is that the Pentagon chose to "leak" this information to a UK paper. Maybe they think that's a better way to get the message out without undue and misleading editorial clutter.

I guess the simple view is that Iran and the US are now engaged in a high stakes game of 'chicken'. It can be hard to back away once this game gets going. Perhaps this public show of US firmness will be matched by more immediate and active support (overt and covert) to Iranians that want to change their regime from within. Revolution is preferable to bombing.

Either way, I hope we are not playing a bluff and I doubt that we are. President Bush has said clearly and strongly that Iran can not be allowed nuclear weapons. I believe he means it. Clear firm policy is great; action is better. As Ledeen has been saying for a long time - Faster Please.