Israel’s two air force strikes on Syria in three days – the second targeting the emblems of Assad rule overlooking Damascus from Mt. Qassioun – appear to be part of a tactical plan put together by the US Israel, and two Sunni powers, Turkey and Qatar, to break up the Tehran-Damascus-Beirut radical bloc and eventually force Iran to give up its nuclear bomb aspirations.
This is how it will be interpreted by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Bashar Assad and Hassan Nasrallah as they prepare their responses for the Israeli attacks.
Without officially confirming those strikes ever took place, Israel insisted that its air force and rockets singled out the advanced Iranian weapons waiting in Syria for transfer to Hizballah – and Hizballah itself. This message was designed for a purpose: It was meant to support Washington’s argument to Moscow that Israel had not aimed its bombs and rockets against Assad and his army – only the Iranian and Hizballah military presence in Syria.
IDF on war alert. Iran-Syrian-Hizballah war of attrition threatened. US set to act on Syria
Tag Archives: Nuclear Bomb
IDF on war alert. Iran-Syrian-Hizballah war of attrition threatened. US set to act on Syria
Andrew Roberts: The Case for Pre-Emptive War, From Goliath to the Dardanelles – WSJ.com
Often in history, massive pre-emption has been the only sensible strategy when facing a new weapon in the hands of one’s sworn enemy, regardless of international law—the sole effect of which has been to hamper the West, since those countries that break it can only be indicted if they lose, whereas civilized powers generally have to abide by its restrictions.
Consider a counterfactual analogy that will weigh heavily on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he struggles with his historic decision. If the French Defense Minister André Maginot, instead of investing so heavily in his defensive line in the mid-1930s, had thought offensively about how to smash the German army the moment it crossed the Versailles Treaty’s “red lines” in the Saar and the Rhineland, some six million Jews might have survived.
The slingshot, chariot, musket, cannon, machine-guns: All were used to devastating effect against opponents that seemed to be stronger with conventional weaponry but were overcome by the weaker power with new weapons that weren’t pre-emptively destroyed. Since President Obama’s second inaugural address has made it painfully obvious that the U.S. will not act to prevent Iran from enriching more than 250 kilos of 20% enriched uranium, enough for a nuclear bomb, Israel will have to.
Andrew Roberts: The Case for Pre-Emptive War, From Goliath to the Dardanelles – WSJ.com
BBC News – Will the rise of the rest mean the decline of the US?
It is eerie to walk so close to a weapon of mass destruction.
The B-52 bomber is one of the ultimate expressions of American power. If the president decides to drop a nuclear bomb, this is the sort of aircraft that would do it.
I am careful not to step over the red line around the plane. A sign painted on the ground warns lethal force can be used against those who cross it without authorisation.
I’ve come to Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, filming for the new BBC One programme The Editors.
The programme aims to get the BBC’s on-air editors to explore – and hopefully answer – a big question. My chosen subject is the decline of American power.
There’s little evidence of it at the base, where the sign above the gate reads: “Only the best come North”.
BBC News – Will the rise of the rest mean the decline of the US?
Why is the president letting America’s nukes rust?
Development of a new nuclear submarine and the planned replacement for the nuclear air-launched cruise missile has been delayed by at least two years. We don’t know if the next generation of strategic bomber will be qualified for nuclear missions at the outset, if ever. No decision has been made to replace the Minuteman ICBM. The life extension programs for the B-61 nuclear bomb and the W-78 and W-88 nuclear warheads have slipped by at least two years.
…
As the gap between what was promised for modernization and what is provided continues to grow, it becomes increasingly difficult to achieve the responsive nuclear infrastructure that even the president acknowledges is essential for nuclear reductions and the continuing credibility of our nuclear deterrent.
Off to a Bad Start – By Sen. Jim Inhofe and Sen. Bob Corker | Foreign Policy
Apparently, the senators don’t believe the president when he talks about a nuclear-free world. The US will lead the way forward – unilaterally if that’s what it takes. All the president has to do is nothing. If he does nothing (or very little) then the aging US nuclear arsenal will have to be retired and replaced with nothing. Sorry, but there is no money in the budget for new nuclear weapons.
Tehran and Assad slide past US and Israeli red lines – nuclear and chemical
Iran has crossed the last red line Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu laid down before the UN Assembly last September, said the well-informed former military intelligence chief Amos Yadlin. None of the measures for halting Iran’s race for a nuclear bomb have worked, he said. For a while, Tehran was impressed by the Israeli prime minister’s warning, but then went back to uranium enrichment at top speed. By now, Iran has certainly gone past the limit set by Netanyahu.
Likud lawmaker Tzahi Hanegbi said Israel has no more than a month or two for stopping a nuclear Iran.
Ron Dermer, a senior Netanyahu adviser and Israel’s next ambassador to Washington, told a group of American Jewish leaders Sunday that the time for action against Iran’s capacity to build a bomb – which he termed an existential threat to Israel – must be counted in months.
Piling on the gloom, Brig. Gen Itay Brun reported that the Syrian army had started using chemical weapons against rebel forces, including Sarin and other paralyzing substances, without the world lifting a finger to stop it.
Tehran and Assad slide past US and Israeli red lines – nuclear and chemical
The danger of dismissing North Korea’s nuclear threat – Washington Times
Prudence and common sense appear to be absent in the Obama administration and Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, who during the current crisis with North Korea, falsely reassure the American people that Pyongyang cannot deliver on its threats to make a nuclear attack on the U.S. mainland.
North Korea could deliver a nuclear bomb in the hold of a freighter under a foreign flag to destroy a U.S. port city such as New York or Los Angeles. They could give a bomb to terrorist groups such as al Qaeda or Hezbollah to deliver by truck or plane across the porous U.S. border. They could use a false-flagged freighter to move a Scud or their medium-range Nodong missile close enough to make a nuclear strike on the U.S. mainland.
What about North Korea’s claim that it has long-range nuclear missiles that can strike the United States right now? If our current crop of leaders is as prudent as were President Dwight Eisenhower and Sen. Lyndon Johnson in 1957, they would warn the American people that North Korean nuclear threats to the U.S. heartland may be real.
PRY: The danger of dismissing North Korea’s nuclear threat – Washington Times
North Korea has ability to put nuclear bomb on missile, Defense Intelligence Agency report says
Rep. Doug Lamborn (R., Colo.) revealed that the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) recently determined North Korea has the ability to put a nuclear warhead on a ballistic missile, although with limited reliability, during Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel’s testimony before the House Armed Services Committee on Thursday.
“Outside experts said that the report’s conclusions helped explain why the administration announced last month that it was bolstering long-range missile defenses in Alaska and California, designed to protect the West Coast, and was rushing another antimissile system, originally not intended for deployment until 2015, to Guam,” the New York Times reported Thursday afternoon.
Hagel discusses military budget cuts before House committee | Washington Free Beacon
Two New Iranian Nuclear Reactors Produce Enough Plutonium for 80 Bombs Per Year
Russia has agreed to help Iran construct two new nuclear reactors in the coming year Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced on Tuesday, its “National Day of Nuclear Technology.”
Russia will help Iran build “at least two 1,000-[megawatt nuclear] reactors,” according to Iran’s Fars News Agency.
Each 1,000-megawatt reactor is capable of producing “enough plutonium each year for 40 nuclear bombs,” according to an analysis by the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Iran Announces new reactors, cooperation with Russia | Washington Free Beacon
Iran Opens Two Nuclear Sites On ‘Atomic Day’
Iran has announced it has opened two nuclear sites, just days after talks with world powers to limit the country’s atomic programme.
State television said that operations are under way at a uranium production facility in Ardakan and at the country’s biggest uranium mine at Saghand.
…
In October, a report from the Institute for Scientific and International Security warned that Iran could produce enough weapons-grade uranium to make a nuclear bomb within two to four months.
The study, which used figures from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said it would take a further 10 months to actually build the nuclear weapon [August 2013].
If you live in the West and thought you were going to kick back in retirement, then think again. Iran’s highest priority is facilitating the return of the Mahdi. Survival of nation is lower on the list. Also, all those bombs will come in handy to produce the millions of death required for the return of the Mahdi. And the target of Iranian bombs won’t be Muslims. It will be Christians.
There can be no stopping or containing Iran. It can only be delayed.
I don’t have the projected completion date of the new reactors. I would guess four or five years to completion, but I’ll have to track down a better estimate.
FPI Bulletin: As Obama Visits Israel, Iran’s Nuclear Threat Grows | Foreign Policy Initiative
In one of the more alarming scenarios, analysts estimate that Iran—using only declared nuclear material and declared sites for uranium enrichment—already has the technical potential to produce nuclear explosive material for its first nuclear weapon in a matter of a few months. What’s worse, if Iran has undeclared sites for uranium enrichment, analysts worry that Iran’s possible timeline for breaking out overtly—or sneaking out covertly—of the international inspections regime and building its first nuclear bomb could further shorten.
FPI Bulletin: As Obama Visits Israel, Iran’s Nuclear Threat Grows | Foreign Policy Initiative
