How About Non-Nuclear Options?

There are those who say we should give peace a chance pointing out that reformists within Iran are slamming President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government for failing to prevent United Nations sanctions. Much of this inner revolt is the result of our government's efforts at non-nuclear options:

Boston Globe, 2 Jan 2007, US unit works quietly to counter Iran's sway

For nearly a year, a select group of US officials has been quietly coordinating actions to counter the looming threat of a nuclear-armed Iran, including increasing the military capabilities of Arab allies such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain.

The group, known as the Iran Syria Policy and Operations Group, or ISOG, is also coordinating a host of other actions, which include covert assistance to Iranian dissidents and building international outrage toward Iran by publicizing its alleged role in a 1994 terrorist attack in Argentina, according to interviews with half a dozen White House, Pentagon, and State Department officials who are involved in the group's work.

Pentagon officials involved with the group intend to ask Congress as early as February to increase funding for transfers of military hardware to allies in the Persian Gulf and to accelerate plans for joint military activities. The request, which is still being formulated, is expected to include but not be limited to more advanced-missile defense systems and early-warning radar to detect and prevent Iranian missile strikes.

While the US keeps hoping for regime change:

The New Republic Online, 10 Apr 2006, IRAN-SYRIA OPERATIONS GROUP

For anyone who thought its troubles in Iraq had curbed the Bush administration's appetite for regime change in next door Iran, think again. Articles by Tom Ricks in yesterday's Washington Post and Seymour Hersh in this week's New Yorker offer a glimpse into the Bush team's preparations for, or at least musings about, a military strike against Iran. Ricks provides the more persuasive account of the two (Hersh seems to rely more heavily on his sources in the Brookings Institution than on any sources in the administration), making the case that the White House sees military action against Iran's nuclear facilities as being more feasible than Bush critics have long argued. Absent from either account, however, is any mention of the State Department's ramped-up campaign for regime change in Iran--a campaign that intensifies by the day.

03-05-2006
Timesonline - Cheney daughter leads ‘cold war’ on mullahs, Excerpt:

THE war in Iraq is her father’s business but Elizabeth Cheney, the American vice-president’s daughter, has been given responsibility for bringing about a different type of regime change in Iran.
Cheney, a 39-year-old mother of four, is a senior official in the State Department, which has often been regarded as hostile territory by Dick Cheney’s White House team. Nonetheless father and daughter agree it would be better for the mullahs’ regime to collapse from within than to be ousted by force.

04-22-2006
Jihadwatch - US and UK develop democracy strategy for Iran, Excerpt: With no awareness of the fact that the only viable pluralist republic ever established in the Islamic world, Turkey, was established in the context of a war against Islam: an open and unapologetic effort, which continues in many ways, to limit the power of political Islam. Modern-day State Department wonks wouldn't dare formulate a strategy including such an effort -- and that's why this proposed effort in Iran, as well as the Iraq democracy adventure, have only dim chances of succeeding. Of course, in Iran State can capitalize on widespread dissatisfaction with the regime. But the Shah had already established a modern pluralist republic and yet still suffered a backlash: the Sharia impulse will not just disappear...

Israel must strike at Iran if the reformists do not take the country back from Mahmoud the Madman. But time is running out and if Iran keeps funding Hamas and Hezbollah, Israel will have to bitch-slap Iran into sensibility. Israel needs to elect a leader who has the balls to do the right thing. Few know that Israel's 1981 attack against Iraq's nuclear facility was taken by Menachem Begin precisely because he feared his party might lose the next election and that the new Israeli leader would fail to take action. Begin told a close political advisor, "I know there is an election coming. If they (Labor) win, I will lose my chance to save the Jewish people." For those who are not up on Israeli Politics, the Labor PArty in the 1980s was most like the Democratic defeatists of the USA today. And like then, Bush will have to finish off the problems of Iraq and Iran, before any possible winning of the White House by defeatocrats in 2008.

My previous posts on Nuclear Iran:
Iran Going Nuclear a Good Thing
Peaceful Iran and Atomic Weapons
WORLD WAR III IS COMING
There is no room for Jews in this world
My most popular article on Iran: August 22 - End of the World -12th Imam - Muhammad al-Mahdi

Related:

the right truth - Israel prepares to attack Iran, why is this a surprise?, Excerpt: No one seems interested in the suggestion yesterday that an alliance would be formed between Saudi Arabia, the United States and Israel to hit Iran. President George W. Bush is gearing up to take care of Iran. Reports started flying yesterday that Israel is planning on striking Iran's nuclear program using low-grade nuclear weapons or what are commonly called bunker busters.

02-23-2006
not yet melted - Iranian Fatwah Approves Use of Nukes, Excerpt:

Iran’s hardline spiritual leaders have issued an unprecedented new fatwa, or holy order, sanctioning the use of atomic weapons against its enemies.

In yet another sign of Teheran’s stiffening resolve on the nuclear issue, influential Muslim clerics have for the first time questioned the theocracy’s traditional stance that Sharia law forbade the use of nuclear weapons.

Outside the Beltway tells us the Bush administration has more on its mind than Iraq: Thursday’s announcement that Admiral Bill Fallon was going to take command of CENTCOM while it was fighting two ground wars had many of us scratching our heads. Pat Lang and others suggested that a naval strike against Iran, on the other hand, would be one plausible explanation. Ralph Peters agrees.

Here's a blast from the past (1970s):

Meanwhile Iran does what Muslim countries do best, use human shields to protect their military installations:

09-08-2004
Iran Focus - Iran to sign up human shields for nuclear reactor, Excerpt: Thousands of Iranians are expected to volunteer to act as human shields in case of a military attack on one of the country's key nuclear facilities, the group organising the effort said on Wednesday.

08-17-2005
global-security.org - University students form human shield around Natanz nuclear site, Excerpt: A number of students from Mashhad University on Wednesday formed human shield around Natanz nuclear site calling for resumption of fuel production under safeguard agreement with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

01-22-2006
News24 - Athletes form human shield, Excerpt:

Isfahan - Iran on Sunday gave a fresh show of its determination to press on with its disputed nuclear programme, enrolling about 1 000 athletes to form a human shield in front of a key nuclear facility.

"Since we have reached this technology indigenously and with our own scientists, we will safeguard it at any cost," the director of the facility, Behrouz Samani, said at the event.

Interesting boast on technology: Iran produces one of the worst cars in the world:

CNN Money, Made In Iran

Plants are dated, and parts, often imported through third countries, are expensive. Engineers complain that assembly lines often break down. The best evidence of this pariah status: the Paykan, a car regarded by Iranians as both a national treasure and a national joke. Some 40 years after they were introduced, Paykans (the name means "arrow" in Farsi) still ply Tehran's streets, accounting for about one car in three, belching pollution, lacking air conditioning, and burning gasoline at a high rate - the last not a big issue in a country where a liter of gas costs only 10 cents, one-third the price of a bottle of drinking water.

Read my previous post to see how backward Iranian Science actually is.

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ENDNOTES

(1):

The Times | UK News, World News and Opinion, 07 Jan 2007, Revealed: Israel plans nuclear strike on Iran

ISRAEL has drawn up secret plans to destroy Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities with tactical nuclear weapons.

Two Israeli air force squadrons are training to blow up an Iranian facility using low-yield nuclear “bunker-busters”, according to several Israeli military sources.

(2):

Fox News, 7 Jan 2007, Report: Israel Planning, Training for Low-Level Nuke Strike Against Iran

Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev denied the report and said that "the focus of the Israeli activity today is to give full support to diplomatic actions" and the implementation of a U.N. Security Council resolution imposing sanctions on Iran for refusing to halt enrichment.

(3):

Washington Times, 27 Aug 2006, Israeli general plots war with Iran

JERUSALEM — Israel has appointed a top general to oversee a war against Iran, prompting speculation that it is preparing for possible military action against Tehran’s nuclear program.

Maj. Gen. Elyezer Shkedy, Israel’s air force chief, will be overall commander for the “Iran front,” military sources told the London Sunday Telegraph.

(4):

Times Online, Israel plans for war with Iran and Syria

THREATENED by a potentially nuclear-armed Tehran, Israel is preparing for a possible war with both Iran and Syria, according to Israeli political and military sources.

The conflict with Hezbollah has led to a strategic rethink in Israel. A key conclusion is that too much attention has been paid to Palestinian militants in Gaza and the West Bank instead of the two biggest state sponsors of terrorism in the region, who pose a far greater danger to Israel’s existence, defence insiders say.

(5):

Sunday Times, 11 Dec 2005, Israel readies forces for strike on nuclear Iran

ISRAEL’S armed forces have been ordered by Ariel Sharon, the prime minister, to be ready by the end of March for possible strikes on secret uranium enrichment sites in Iran, military sources have revealed.

(6):

Sunday Times, 13 Mar 2005, Revealed: Israel plans strike on Iranian nuclear plant

ISRAEL has drawn up secret plans for a combined air and ground attack on targets in Iran if diplomacy fails to halt the Iranian nuclear programme. The inner cabinet of Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, gave "initial authorisation” for an attack at a private meeting last month on his ranch in the Negev desert.

Israeli forces have used a mock-up of Iran’s Natanz uranium enrichment plant in the desert to practise destroying it. Their tactics include raids by Israel’s elite Shaldag (Kingfisher) commando unit and airstrikes by F-15 jets from 69 Squadron, using bunker-busting bombs to penetrate underground facilities.

The plans have been discussed with American officials who are said to have indicated provisionally that they would not stand in Israel’s way if all international efforts to halt Iranian nuclear projects failed.

Tehran claims that its programme is designed for peaceful purposes but Israeli and American intelligence officials — who have met to share information in recent weeks — are convinced that it is intended to produce nuclear weapons.

(7):

Al-Jazeera, 22 Dec 2005, Israel ready to strike Iran

In October, a Russian rocket carried Iran’s first spy satellite, the Sinah-1, into orbit. This launch accelerated Israel’s plans to strike Tehran’s nuclear facilities; the Jewish state is now getting ready for an attack by the end of March.