Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Washington Times Encourages Israel to Attack Iran

Think Progress

Today, the Washington Times reports Israel is in a good position right now to take out Iran’s nuclear sites:

Israel is in the best position militarily in its history to mount air strikes against Iran, after a decade of buying U.S.-produced long-range aircraft, penetrating bombs and aerial refueling tankers. […] “They have the capability to strike Iran,” said retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas G. McInerney, a former fighter pilot who has trained with Israelis. […] “I’m not worried about them hitting the targets. They will suffer losses, but they are capable of doing it.”

It doesn’t matter how much advanced weaponry they have. As Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) and others have pointed out, conducting air strikes against Iran is “not a viable, feasible, responsible option.” Newsweek pointed out the dangers of such a strike earlier this year:

The Israelis admit they can only disable the Iranian program, not destroy it. “The real question is what you achieve if the best you can do is to delay the project for a few years,” says a senior U.S. administration official, speaking anonymously because it’s a sensitive topic. The cost to the region’s stability could be devastating.

American Progress nonproliferation expert Joe Cirincione has even warned that such a strike “would not, as is often said, delay the Iranian program. It would almost certainly speed it up. That is what happened when the Israelis struck at the Iraq program in 1981.”

(Read more from other experts who think there are no good military options in Iran HERE.)

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