OMG. Krauthammer is off his meds, in a big way. Check this out:
"...An aerial attack on Iran's nuclear facilities lies just beyond the horizon of diplomacy. ..."
And what do we get for said aerial attack? Why merely the respect, love and adulation of the entire free, non-Persian world and nothing less...
...The Arabs are terrified about the rise of a nuclear Iran and would privately rejoice in its defanging.
...
The Europeans will be less hypocritical because their visceral anti-Americanism trumps rational calculation.
So the result of the attacks will be, long term it seems, candy from our friendly Arab buddies and flowers from our European friends. Hmmmm...invasion followed by candy and flowers, where have I heard that before?
Krauthammer needs to get a grip on reality and put away his copy of whatever trashy novel he's reading where the steely-eyed misslemen bomb a country into submission with a few "well-chosen" airstrikes. Ain't gonna happen. The only way to effectively project air power and make its impact be felt longer than a few weeks is to follow up with ground forces, and in the case of Iran, that's not going to happen, without a draft and the lead time to train the forces.
If he needs an example of the spectacular failure of such air strikes looking at the recent Israeli bombing campaign in Lebanon might be an instructive first lesson for him. I don't think that there was any long-term strategic advantage or even a short-term tactical advantage granted to the Israeli forces by their bombing campaign, or did I miss something?
Additionally, I have to wonder how good our intel is on the Irani air defense network. Stealth bombers are all Tom Swift neato cool, but the journeymans work is done by highly visible fast-movers that can loiter on target and deliver ordinance. They also tend to be the most vulnerable to SAM's and whatever modern-day AAA Tehran owns, or probably even the old ZSU-23/4, which I am sure the Irani's have stockpiled somewhere.
Yeah, once again it's all a big Risk board for the armchair pundits like Krauthammer who see the need to speak ignorantly and carry a bigger stupid stick to hit themselves over the head with, just to prove they're as stupid yesterday as they will be tomorrow.
I think that the doctor has just flunked calculus. However, he does get bonus points for inserting this into the current republican "All Fear, All the Time" narrative.
posted by Jo Fish on 09.15.06 at 09:42 AM
Comments:
Krauthammer. The word tastes bad, doesn't it?
People forget that Krauthammer was a PNACer, and was one of the characters who helped get us into this Iraq mess.
He also said that it's time for the military to take an honest look at Iran. It doesn't really matter if the military takes an honest look, this regime won't care what they say if Bushites decide to attack Iran. Those GOPers have their own way of looking at things and that's what we will hear. I am so unhappy that our military is being defeated not by the enemy, but by their own government leaders.
Geez! Have the BUSHEVIK idiots totally lost their minds (rhetorical - they've never had one)? The Iranians supposedly have the Moskit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-270_Moskit) and that would be a carrier group killer.
How would that look to lose Aegis class cruisers and main battle carriers to relatively cheap missiles? This is a Russian supersonic anti-ship missile, and I would wager that we (US) would stand no chance against blocking Iranian re-supply of these missiles from Russia.
Last I looked (of course, its been over 20 years), the CIWS of USN ships could only be effective against subsonic threats, i.e., Kingfish and Celts. Only fighter aircraft with missiles would be effective against this kind of threat, and Jo, being a naval aviator yourself, you know better than we that if the limited aircraft resources of a carrier is having to run CAP 24/7 over the carrier group, that's gonna rapidly degrade any attack capability.
Plus, air power has to have an EFFECTIVE land component. Where are we gonna get the troops? I've been to Iran; it's an enormous country, and extremely varied (not a flat desert like the Bushies and their town criers believe - they don't think).
Grrr. Maybe we need a Constitutional amendment that requires all Congress critters children and executive branch members' children to be front line servicepersons until their (parent's) term is up. Plus, all college students who don't serve but argue for a war footing should immediately be drafted, and sent straight to the war after AIT - no options.
posted by: smaug on 09.15.06 at 02:36 PM [permalink]
I think every service member with a star had better be thinking right now about what he/she would do if given an illegal order. Because that question could soon become far more than hypothetical.
posted by: Lex on 09.15.06 at 02:39 PM [permalink]
The only way to effectively project air power and make its impact be felt longer than a few weeks is to follow up with ground forces
Except if the air strike is nuclear. ShrubCo has been itching to nuke someone, to remove the 'taboo' of nuclear warfare.
If you think the US is hated now, just wait until Bush nukes Iran in an act of unproked aggression.
posted by: Satan luvvs Repugs on 09.15.06 at 06:51 PM [permalink]
Charles Barkley said it best. “I was a republican until they went crazy.“
Iran would be another stupid and costly side show. Krauthammer should have taken his drugs in the sixties instead of waiting until now to hallucinate.
With ripoffuglicans in charge, Bin Laden will stay at large.
posted by: R. Ruffian on 09.15.06 at 10:44 PM [permalink]
You are right that Krauthammer is kidding himself about these airstrikes. I would support an airstrike ala Israel's strike on the Iraqi Osirak reactor. But this situation is very different, especially because we have completely overextended our military in Iraq. These troops would be completely vulnerable if Iran stepped up support for the insurgency and used it as a proxy war against us.
I wonder if there are enough flowers in Iran for the grateful people to throw at the, uh, missiles as they fall and everyone's dancing in the streets.(You know, I don't like the current regime here, but that doesn't mean I want China to invade and give us a new one.) And there are no meds that will help the Krauthammer get better, his situation is hopeless. Too bad.
It seems to me that bushit will use nukes in reply to an entry above. It really is the only alternative that he has available to his way of thinking. Who needs troops when the ground is contaminated radioactively? You know, turn it all into glowing green ground, to quote a less than human being I met the other day. He was all for the nuke option, to show the world our strength he reasoned. Wow.
We have an insane president presiding over a runaway locomotive of a government heading for a broken bridge. Just wow. Nukes, how can anyone imagine this as an anwer to any thing?
posted by: kerryinalaska on 09.16.06 at 04:46 PM [permalink]
