Tuesday, October 05, 2004

Captain's Quarters Blog: Iranians Announce Improved Missile Strike Capability

[I cannot believe that Iran continues to get away with escalating their nuclear capablities...these people have stated for more than a decade that they intend to become a nuclear power so as to be able to compete on even footing with Israel and the United States. Any plan of ours that includes allowing them to continue in this regard is utterly foolish. I highly recommend Yossef Bodansky's last three books: bin Laden: The Man Who Targeted America, The High Cost of Peace, and The Secret History of the Iraq War. Mr. Bodansky heads up the Congressional Task Force on Counterterrorism and Unconventional Warfare and he has studied the Middle East for more than 30 years. He has countless sources and contacts all over the Middle East...many are in such precarious situations that their identities or any clues regarding their identities cannot be divulged. In The High Cost of Peace, Bodansky throughly details the nuclear intentions of Iran. In The Secret History of the Iraq War, Bodansky gives the exact location of Saddam Hussein's WMDs as well as the whereabouts of the bulk of his conventional arsenal. Bodansky had a file on bin Laden for almost 30 years before the terrorist strikes of 9/11/2001.]

Plus A Bit Of Extra Room For That Free Nuclear "Fuel" At The Top
http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/

The Iranians announced that they could hit targets all over Southwest Asia and even southern Europe with their new Shahab-3 rocket, the AP reports:

Iran can launch a missile as far as 2,000 km (1,250 miles), a senior official was quoted as saying Tuesday, substantially increasing the announced range of the Islamic state's military capabilities.
Such a missile would be capable of hitting Israel or parts of southeastern Europe. Iran says its missiles are for purely defensive purposes and would be used to counter a possible Israeli strike against its nuclear facilities.

"Now we have the power to launch a missile with a 2,000 km range," IRNA quoted influential former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani as saying. "Iran is determined to improve its military capabilities."

The only way Iran could consider the Shahab-3 a defensive weapon is if they think the combat front exists at the borders of the old Ottoman Empire, or in Tel Aviv. Both are the intended targets of the Shahab-3 and the Iranian mullahcracy. Despite their insistence that they have no desire for nuclear weapons or other WMD, the truth is that they now have a payload system for delivering them that far exceeds the capacity of the Hussein regime at its peak, with its creaky Soviet-era Scud missiles.

What does the US plan to do about this? The Bush administration keeps pressing the EU-3 to force the IAEA to the UN Security Council so that deadlines for compliance on nuclear proliferation can be set. John Kerry wants to give the mullahs nuclear material in exchange for a promise not to stick it in the Shahab-3s -- or to give it to Hezbollah or Islamic Jihad -- and then sit back and see how they handle it.

Which option makes you feel safer at night?

Posted by Captain Ed at 06:02 AM Comments (5) TrackBack (1)

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