US General: We Can Successfully Attack Iran

[SamH]

I
If we had provided aid to Czechoslovakia, then perhaps Hitler’s army would have turned around at the border instead of seizing it and triggering WWII.

OR, Hitler might have waited a couple of years until he had many more submarines. He had only a very small fleet of U-Boats at the start of WWII.

OR, Hitler might have improved his fleet of four-engine airplanes. One of his long range bombers did make a unrefuelled round trip flight from Germany to the U.S. and back. A delayed war might have started off with an “exchange” of nuclear weapons!!

Lots of what if’s.

Or had the British and French honored their defense treaty with Poland and invaded from the west instead of sitting along Germany’s western frontier afraid to act “World” War 2 would never have happened. With nothing but distance between their armies and Berlin Hitler would have been ousted from power in 1939 and the “Iron Curtain” never enveloping Eastern Europe. Instead they kindly waited for the German army to finish off Poland and redeploy to West for the invasion of France - with the Soviet Army peacefully waiting in the East for its turn to be attacked.

 

[pismopal]

Or had the British and French honored their defense treaty with Poland and invaded from the west instead of sitting along Germany’s western frontier afraid to act “World” War 2 would never have happened. With nothing but distance between their armies and Berlin Hitler would have been ousted from power in 1939 and the “Iron Curtain” never enveloping Eastern Europe. Instead they kindly waited for the German army to finish off Poland and redeploy to West for the invasion of France - with the Soviet Army peacefully waiting in the East for its turn to be attacked.

Another example of timid leaders who by their reluctance to act, invite attack by predator countries. This stuff is so easy to see by some but impossible for others. Ye gads

 

[Monte_RCMS]

Another example of timid leaders who by their reluctance to act, invite attack by predator countries. This stuff is so easy to see by some but impossible for others. Ye gads

Useful comment.

Sitting back and waiting for something to happen is usually the WORST alternative.

 

[SamH]

Useful comment.

Sitting back and waiting for something to happen is usually the WORST alternative.

With our current leadership its a case of sitting back and wondering WHAT just happened.

 

[Monte_RCMS]

Bases all over the world are not necessary preparation for a world war that isn’t even remotely on the horizon. They certainly aren’t necessary for any likely conflicts we might be involved in that aren’t of our own making.

Peace and God bless!

[Not picking on you.]

Someone just sent me this email … so I looked it up and found it as a Web page.

And I needed a place to paste the link.

So … here are a few U.S. “bases” that folks might not be aware of:

rightlyconservative.ning.com/profiles/blogs/our-european-arrogance-in

 

[Rich_Olszewski]

Or had the British and French honored their defense treaty with Poland and invaded from the west instead of sitting along Germany’s western frontier afraid to act “World” War 2 would never have happened. With nothing but distance between their armies and Berlin Hitler would have been ousted from power in 1939 and the “Iron Curtain” never enveloping Eastern Europe. Instead they kindly waited for the German army to finish off Poland and redeploy to West for the invasion of France - with the Soviet Army peacefully waiting in the East for its turn to be attacked.

There’s nothing like hindsight, the stuff of armchair generals. Facilely put, but not so easily executed.

 

[Rich_Olszewski]

They don’t even have to close the Strait—just making it more dangerous will cause the insurers to raise premium rates for the oil tanker owners, and they’ll pass on the cost to the consumer at the gas pump in the form of higher prices.

Economic pressures can be more effective than a division of boots on the ground.

 

[Dale_M]

This lengthy NYT article basically details the actions Israel has been engaged in to stop an Iranian nuclear weapon. As for the question posed in the headline, Israel’s Defense Minister Ehud Barak mentioned three key questions which need to be answered in the affirmative before an attack could take place.

[Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon granted the Mossad virtually unlimited funds and powers to “stop the Iranian bomb.” As one recently retired senior Mossad officer told me: “There was no operation, there was no project that was not carried out because of a lack of funding.”

At a number of secret meetings with U.S. officials between 2004 and 2007, [the head of Mossad, Meir] Dagan detailed a “five-front strategy” that involved political pressure, covert measures, counterproliferation, sanctions and regime change. In a secret cable sent to the U.S. in August 2007, he stressed that “the United States, Israel and like-minded countries must push on all five fronts in a simultaneous joint effort.” He went on to say: “Some are bearing fruit now. Others” — and here he emphasized efforts to encourage ethnic resistance in Iran — “will bear fruit in due time, especially if they are given more attention.”

nytimes.com/2012/01/29/magazine/will-israel-attack-iran.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss&src=ig

 

[gilliam]

What do WWII graves have to do with Iran?

 

[SamH]

There’s nothing like hindsight, the stuff of armchair generals. Facilely put, but not so easily executed.

Actually it would have been very easy to execute. Much easier than attempting to fend off a fully deployed army as they would a year later. Germany left only 13 (?) underequipped divisions in the west while the rest of the army was in Poland. Germany suffered heavily early in the Polish campaign and its armies and air force were fully engaged with Polish forces leaving little to be spared for the west. By the end of the campaign Germany had lost nearly 25% of its airpower and many divisions were in need of personal and equipment.

Hitler could not believe that Germany and France would go to war over Poland and made little in terms of preparation to defend the western border. He and his generals were even more shocked when the two did declare war but seemed mostly content with sitting behind their defenses. The French army and air forces were much larger than Germany’s in 1939 - adding British forces to those numbers only added to their superiority.

 

[Michael_C]

How about we wait until there’s actual evidence of a weapon.

Are we going to have another pre-emptive war? I guess everyone forgets about all of the WMD’s we found in Iraq. Great intelligence work, or totally unreliable depending on how you choose to look at it.

csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2011/1108/Imminent-Iran-nuclear-threat-A-timeline-of-warnings-since-1979/Earliest-warnings-1979-84

 

[SamH]

What do WWII graves have to do with Iran?

History’s lessons have been lost on those that don’t know history.

 

[SamH]

How about we wait until there’s actual evidence of a weapon.

Are we going to have another pre-emptive war? I guess everyone forgets about all of the WMD’s we found in Iraq. Great intelligence work, or totally unreliable depending on how you choose to look at it.

csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2011/1108/Imminent-Iran-nuclear-threat-A-timeline-of-warnings-since-1979/Earliest-warnings-1979-84

Actually there were many UN prohibited weapons programs in Iraq. Remember all the nashing of the teeth over yellow cake in Niger - it turns out Iraq already had it.

msnbc.msn.com/id/25546334/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/t/secret-us-mission-hauls-uranium-iraq/

The last major remnant of Saddam Hussein’s nuclear program — a huge stockpile of concentrated natural uranium — reached a Canadian port Saturday to complete a secret U.S. operation that included a two-week airlift from Baghdad and a ship voyage crossing two oceans.

The removal of*** 550 metric tons of “yellowcake***” — the seed material for higher-grade nuclear enrichment — was a significant step toward closing the books on Saddam’s nuclear legacy. It also brought relief to U.S. and Iraqi authorities who had worried the cache would reach insurgents or smugglers crossing to Iran to aid its nuclear ambitions.

 

[Rich_Olszewski]

Actually it would have been very easy to execute. Much easier than attempting to fend off a fully deployed army as they would a year later. Germany left only 13 (?) underequipped divisions in the west while the rest of the army was in Poland. Germany suffered heavily early in the Polish campaign and its armies and air force were fully engaged with Polish forces leaving little to be spared for the west. By the end of the campaign Germany had lost nearly 25% of its airpower and many divisions were in need of personal and equipment.

Hitler could not believe that Germany and France would go to war over Poland and made little in terms of preparation to defend the western border. He and his generals were even more shocked when the two did declare war but seemed mostly content with sitting behind their defenses. The French army and air forces were much larger than Germany’s in 1939 - adding British forces to those numbers only added to their superiority.

Source?

 

[SamH]

Source?

Die Panzertruppen, by Heinz Guderian

 

[SamH]

There’s nothing like hindsight, the stuff of armchair generals. Facilely put, but not so easily executed.

Actually that was the opinion of armchair generals like George Patton, Bernard Law Montgomery, and Omar Bradley. All saw the beginning of WW2 as a tragic comedy of errors on the part of the allies in their attempt to avoid the war by not recognizing the threats as they grew.

 

[gilliam]

The EU sanctions don’t kick in until July 1. It will take months for them to have an effect. If they are going down the sanctions road, it won’t be until the end of the year before they will have justification to attack and that might be too late. Am I missing something here?

 

[meltzerboy]

This lengthy NYT article basically details the actions Israel has been engaged in to stop an Iranian nuclear weapon. As for the question posed in the headline, Israel’s Defense Minister Ehud Barak mentioned three key questions which need to be answered in the affirmative before an attack could take place.

nytimes.com/2012/01/29/magazine/will-israel-attack-iran.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss&src=ig

It’s hard to say whether Israel will conduct a preemptive strike against Iran. But if Santorum is elected President, the United States will likely do so first.

 

[Dale_M]

Actually there were many UN prohibited weapons programs in Iraq. Remember all the nashing of the teeth over yellow cake in Niger - it turns out Iraq already had it.

msnbc.msn.com/id/25546334/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/t/secret-us-mission-hauls-uranium-iraq/

The yellowcake was left over from the abandoned nuclear program. Simply discontinuing the program would not remove the yellowcake. Nor does the existence of yellowcake prove that a nuclear program had re-started. Indeed, if the nuclear program had restated, we would expect to find uranium which was much more enriched than yellowcake.

Quoting from your MSNBC article

While yellowcake alone is not considered potent enough for a so-called “dirty bomb” — a conventional explosive that disperses radioactive material — it could stir widespread panic if incorporated in a blast. Yellowcake also can be enriched for use in reactors and, at higher levels, nuclear weapons using sophisticated equipment.

Yellowcake =/= highly enriched uranium

 

[SamH]

The yellowcake was left over from the abandoned nuclear program. Simply discontinuing the program would not remove the yellowcake. Nor does the existence of yellowcake prove that a nuclear program had re-started. Indeed, if the nuclear program had restated, we would expect to find uranium which was much more enriched than yellowcake.

Quoting from your MSNBC article

Yellowcake =/= highly enriched uranium

Just so you know - Iraq was supposed to turn over all nuclear material to the UN as part of the cease fire agreement. When it was even mentioned (quite correctly I might add) in George Bush’s State of the Union Address in 2003 democrats went apoplectic claiming he was trying to gin up support for the war by claim Iraq had nuclear material that couldn’t possibly exist (yet here we are with over 500 tons).