Thanks for visiting this site! Please visit our sponsors,
make a donation, advertise or subscribe-
All are appreciated-Thanks!
"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance."
- Thomas Jefferson
"The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep's for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty. Plainly, the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of liberty."- Abraham Lincoln
May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't.
- General George Patton Jr
Call Your Senator Or Representative
Toll Free:
800-828-0498,
800-459-1887
and 800-614-2803
LET THEM KNOW YOU'RE PAYING ATTENTION AND VOTING
"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."
-- John Adams (Address to the Military, 11 October 1798)
Veterans can find out information about using their VA Benefits including the VA Loan benefit.
"Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment nothing can fail.
Without it nothing can succeed.
He who molds opinion is greater than he who enacts laws.
"-Abraham Lincoln
A Coming Attack on Iran?
By Greg Reeson
The United States and its European allies have tried for years to
negotiate with Iran in an effort to resolve questions concerning
Tehran’s suspected pursuit of nuclear weapons. Thus far, those efforts
have yielded no progress, and it appears that the patience of some key
players is quickly wearing thin. Shortly after his inauguration,
President Barack Obama stated that he wanted to see significant
progress in diplomatically solving the
Iranian nuclear issue by the
end of his first year in office. Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu followed that statement
up with one of his own, offering
Iran a similar timeline for resolving
the impasse. Then, just a few
days ago on July 5, Vice President
Joe Biden said on ABC’s “This Week
with George Stephanopoulos that
Israel was a sovereign nation free
to take any action it deemed
necessary to protect its national
interests.
There was a time, not that long ago,
when I thought an Israeli attack
against Iran’s nuclear facilities was improbable. Now I’m not so sure.
Of course, broad statements alone aren’t enough to suspect that attack
plans are in the works. There are, however, other reasons to believe
that the day of reckoning for Tehran’s nuclear program is drawing
near. Iran continues to add centrifuges for producing highly enriched
uranium, with thousands now in operation. At the same time, Tehran is
working to perfect a long-range missile capability that could
accurately deliver a nuclear warhead to a target. Some analysts
believe Iran could be a nuclear-armed regional power as soon as 2011.
Such a development would be a game changer in the Middle East,
neutralizing the deterrent effect of Israel’s own nuclear arsenal and
potentially sparking an arms race in which Saudi Arabia, Egypt and
other states pursue their own nuclear weapons capability to counter
growing Iranian power.
How would an Israeli attack unfold? Given that the United States would
be unlikely to agree to over flight of Iraq for a military strike on
Iran, Israel could transit Saudi Arabian airspace enroute to targets
in Natanz, Esfahan, and Arak. Mossad chief Meir Dagan alluded to as
much when he reportedly told Netanyahu recently that Riyadh would look
the other way if Israeli aircraft flew over the Kingdom in the process
of attacking Iranian nuclear facilities. Such a move would also not
require U.S. consent. Israeli pilots have been training for quite some
time for an attack on Iran, and air strikes
would probably be accompanied by
long-range missile attacks.
A strong and sustained attack could be
expected to inflict significant damage on
Iranian nuclear facilities, but the blow would
not be a lethal one. Iran has gone to great
lengths to disperse, bury and protect its
nuclear infrastructure, and while Tehran’s
nuclear program would most certainly be
set back, it would not be eliminated.
Israel is capable of conducting an effective
attack, and neither theUnited States nor
anyone else could do anything to stop it.
The real concern is the potential aftermath. If history is any guide, the
international community, under the auspices of the United Nations,
would probably not do much. Arab states, and most likely some of
America’s allies, would demand punitive sanctions, although the final
product would undoubtedly be another meaningless Security Council
resolution that is not enforced by anyone of any significance. Such
was the case when Israel attacked Iraq’s Osirak reactor in 1981, and
in 2007 when Israel destroyed what is widely believed to have been a
Syrian nuclear facility in the making. There would, of course, be
official condemnations from nations within and outside the Middle
East. But deep down there would be a strong sense of relief, for Arab
countries worried about rising Persian power, and for Western nations
who have failed on their own to deal with a defiant and belligerent
Iran.
The big unknown is Tehran’s reaction. Iran could step up attacks
against U.S. military personnel in Iraq, or stoke sectarian strife
between Iraq’s Sunnis and Shiites. Hezbollah could also be prodded,
with its tens of thousands of rockets, to attack Israeli cities from
southern Lebanon, or Iran could funnel arms and money to insurgent
forces in Afghanistan. Iran might launch its own long-range missiles
at Israel, or it might have its operatives conduct worldwide terrorist
attacks against Israeli and Western soft targets like embassies and
private businesses. All of these are possibilities, and all must be
taken into account before Israel decides to strike. The determining
factor will be whether or not Israel believes the benefits of an
attack outweigh the potential risks of an Iranian response. I suspect
we’ll find out the answer soon enough.
 | ||||||
