The war drums against Iran are reaching a fever pitch. If you think Iraq has turned out badly just imagine what will happen if Bush gets his way in Iran. The first piece is by Seymour Hersh. Hersh has excellent reporter credentials for breaking stories (My Lai, Abu Ghraib). Take this one seriously. The other pieces are in response to Hersh's reporting that Bush plans on nuking Iran.

THE IRAN PLANS
Would President Bush go to war to stop Tehran from getting the bomb?
by Seymour Hersh

The Bush Administration, while publicly advocating diplomacy in order to stop Iran from pursuing a nuclear weapon, has increased clandestine activities inside Iran and intensified planning for a possible major air attack. Current and former American military and intelligence officials said that Air Force planning groups are drawing up lists of targets, and teams of American combat troops have been ordered into Iran, under cover, to collect targeting data and to establish contact with anti-government ethnic-minority groups. The officials say that President Bush is determined to deny the Iranian regime the opportunity to begin a pilot program, planned for this spring, to enrich uranium. [...] A government consultant with close ties to the civilian leadership in the Pentagon said that Bush was “absolutely convinced that Iran is going to get the bomb” if it is not stopped. He said that the President believes that he must do “what no Democrat or Republican, if elected in the future, would have the courage to do,” and “that saving Iran is going to be his legacy.” One former defense official, who still deals with sensitive issues for the Bush Administration, told me that the military planning was premised on a belief that “a sustained bombing campaign in Iran will humiliate the religious leadership and lead the public to rise up and overthrow the government.” He added, “I was shocked when I heard it, and asked myself, ‘What are they smoking?’ ” [...] He went on, “Nuclear planners go through extensive training and learn the technical details of damage and fallout—we’re talking about mushroom clouds, radiation, mass casualties, and contamination over years. This is not an underground nuclear test, where all you see is the earth raised a little bit. These politicians don’t have a clue, and whenever anybody tries to get it out”—remove the nuclear option—“they’re shouted down.” The attention given to the nuclear option has created serious misgivings inside the offices of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he added, and some officers have talked about resigning. Late this winter, the Joint Chiefs of Staff sought to remove the nuclear option from the evolving war plans for Iran—without success, the former intelligence official said. “The White House said, ‘Why are you challenging this? The option came from you.’ ”

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The US plan to destroy CENTCOM.....attack Iran

OK, this is really, really simple. If ONE US bomb falls on Iraq, thousands of American soldiers would die in Iraq. In fact, as talk of this planning grows, Iranian basiji will reenforce the Sadrist and Badr Organization will get better arms. I would bet the US Special Ops teams are allowed to walk around at the Iranian Army's pleasure. Any indication of an attack would mean a lot of people rolled up and killed. If Bush is thinking about Hitler and a world war and bunker busters, I have to question his sanity. Forget regime change. Iranians have seen Iraq and want no part of it. Again, this is the voice of American-friendly exiles whispering into Beltway ears without any consideration of reality. If the US uses conventional bombs in Iran, the Shia in Iraq will start a national rebellion. Sadr will be sitting in the Green Zone within two days. If they go nuclear, we will lose Afghanistan as well.

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Iran -- Apocalypse Now?

When a child is finally able to read, write and understand some things, there are two lessons that should be taught first, and these are 1. The The Golden Rule which states in one formulation "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." 2. Never, ever, engage in a land war in Asia, a remark attributed to General Douglas MacArthur who also said "Anyone who commits the American Army in the Asian mainland should have his head examined." The Bush administration now appears poised to learn nothing from their first mistake, which violates precept #2 above, the invasion of Iraq. They now seem hell bent on repeating that mistake. Not since the The Cuban Missle Crisis in 1962, which followed the Bay of Pigs fiasco, has the world faced a crisis of this magnitude. Here we'll analyze the Hersh article, the geopolitics & oil issues involved and the possible fallout from a US or Israeli military engagement with Iran. This possibility can't be taken seriously enough--it is tantamount to World War III should it actually occur. If some of you TOD readers believe this is an alarmist post, rest assured, it is.

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Bush 'is planning nuclear strikes on Iran's secret sites'

  thanks to Drudge Report

"No Confidence"

Obviously, there are hidden, sometimes contradictory, and always complex games being played when senior elements of the military and intelligence apparatus, and their still-powerful, deeply involved “alumni associations”, find themselves talking to investigative reporter Hersh of New Yorker Magazine...or New York Times reporter Thom Shanker, who interviewed retired 3-star Marine general and Iraq-war planner Gregory Newbold on the general’s call, in TIME Magazine, for DOD Secretary Rumsfeld’s resignation...or the sources for the British intelligence briefing delivered last Monday to Prime Minister Blair, but “outed” in a clearly well-sourced leak to the Sunday Telegraph (Nelson Report, 4/3/06). Looking back over the weeks and months, a pattern emerges which is inescapable and unmistakable, and it’s our argument today that the message being sent by the US military and intelligence apparatus is a clear vote of No Confidence in the management and decision-making capacity of President Bush, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, and those who will be involved in any military decision-making on Iran, including Vice President Cheney.

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34°4'48" N, 49°42'0" E.

Arak is not an old city, though it is the capital of the Markazi Province, one of the oldest settled areas on the Iranian plateau.

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The Human Costs of Bombing Iran

George Bush didn’t exactly deny Seymour Hersh’s report in The New Yorker that the Administration is considering using tactical nuclear weapons against Iran. Neither did Scott McClellan. Bush called it “wild speculation,” and McClellan said the United States would go ahead with "normal military contingency planning." Those are hardly categorical denials. So let’s look at what the human costs of dropping a tactical nuclear weapon on Iran might entail. They are astronomical.

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  thanks to Antiwar.com