By George H. Wittman on 5.2.06 @ 12:07AM
In the past few weeks the world has been treated to a barrage of bombast from Persian military chest thumpers.
In the past few weeks the world has been treated to a barrage of
bombast from Iran. The first rhetorical salvo was blasted off by
President Ahmadinejad with the claim that his country was already
working on advanced methods to enrich uranium.
This was taken to mean that copies of the P2 centrifuge design
of Pakistan's renegade nuclear weaponeer, A.Q.Khan, had been built
by Tehran's scientists and more would be coming on line swiftly,
thus substantially enhancing their ability to produce enriched
uranium. The implication therein was that Iran would have the
ability to produce a nuclear weapon in under five years.
Hashemi Rafsanjani, the former president, jumped into the act by
announcing that Iran was "ready to deal with" any military threat
from the United States. This verbal weaponry was accompanied by
Iranian naval maneuvers in the Gulf that purportedly revealed new
high speed torpedoes and missiles capable of striking enemy
ships.
The display of Persian military chest thumping reached a
crescendo when Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,
publicly suggested to an eager listener, the visiting President al
Bashir of Sudan, that Tehran was prepared to transfer its nuclear
technology to anyone it wished.
The purpose of this round of bellicose propaganda would appear
to be an effort by the Iran regime to exploit anti-war sentiment in
U.S. politics to force a perceived weakened Bush presidency to deal
less forcefully with the prospect of a potentially nuclear armed
Iran. The logic, strained as it might be, is that the image of Iran
speeding inexorably toward advanced nuclear technology
substantiates its claim to be able to do anything it wishes with
that ability. Without saying it, nuclear weaponization is implied
as the "natural" outgrowth.
The Iranian leadership appears to be counting on the fact that a
large body of influential American strategic opinion believes that
the U.S. would have to launch some form of nuclear attack in order
to prevent development of a Persian bomb in heavily protected and
hardened nuclear sites. Such a military action would not be
possible, according to Iranian reasoning, without destroying
America's position as the world's political and moral leader -- and
no American president would do that!
This leaves economic sanctions as the only recourse. No matter
the hardships created, Iran's theocratic leadership believes it has
enough control over its civilian sector and leverage with Russia
and China to outlast and outwit any program of international
sanction sought by the West.
If this is the Iranian equation, Tehran has made an essential
error regarding the military option even though it may be quite
correct in respect to economic sanctions. The 300 possible sites
that reportedly make up Iran's national nuclear research,
development and manufacturing complex are quite vulnerable to U.S.
conventional weapons. In the most hardened of sites deep
underground it is not necessary to penetrate all levels in order to
destroy their operational capability and deny access and egress.
American conventional -- albeit sophisticated -- weapons have that
ability.
While Iran may be making the mistake that the U.S. won't attack
because Washington believes it only could do so with nuclear
weapons, American strategists would also make a mistake if they
think the rank and file of the Iranian people does not want to have
nuclear weaponry. The ordinary Iranian is well aware of the fact
that his country is surrounded by the nuclear powers, Israel,
Russia, and Pakistan. This is to say nothing of the nuclear- armed
American navy and air force operating in the Gulf and its
environs.
There is nothing strong enough within the structure of today's
Iranian political culture that will hold back Ahmadinejad's
ambition for the first Shia nuclear weapon system. The idea that
the U.S. and its European allies have time as an advantage holds no
legitimacy. Time is on the side of Iran's mullahs and their
favorite radical son. They are not about to wait till Washington
becomes less encumbered by its commitment in Iraq.
The United States is faced with three deadly choices: One is to
wait and work for an Iranian regime change in the near future to
halt Tehran's current drive toward nuclear armament. The second is
to accept the concept of a nuclear-armed Iran and make the best of
it. The third is to move militarily to crush Iran's nuclear weapons
capability. In any case there is only a window of a few years.
Perhaps Clint Eastwood said it best. "Are you feeling lucky
today?"
topics:
Military, Iraq, Iran, Russia, Israel, Pakistan, Nuclear Weapons
