CHAPIN: Destroy nuclear facilities now

COMMENTARY:

Unwittingly, our president is taking a hugely unwarranted risk by offering to negotiate with the Iranians while having publicly proclaimed that we cannot allow them to have nuclear weapons.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will necessarily have to assume that once it becomes fully apparent Iran won’t voluntarily abandon its nuclear quest, the United States will launch a pre-emptive strike. And if not, Israel certainly will.

We in turn would be foolhardy not to assume Iran would seek to clandestinely obtain nuclear warheads from Russia or North Korea in order to launch its own pre-emptive attacks. And given that the Russians are enabling the Iranians to develop nuclear weapons, it’s not much of a stretch to assume the Russians would also be willing to sell them a few nukes.

The Russians would love to see a big blow-up in the Gulf drive oil prices sky high. Even better, if an Iranian electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack put the United States out of commission, no one would stand in the way of Russia regaining control of its former republics. Also,the Persian Gulf would be up for grabs. And no longer would North Korea need worry about the United States taking out its nukes.

So consider this: Just as the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor while negotiating with the United States, the Iranians themselves launch a pre-emptive EMP attack on the United States before negotiations totally break down. But the real wild card in all this is Israel, for even if neither we nor the Iranians do anything, Israel has no other rational choice than to eliminate Iran’s nuclear facilities. Remember, Mr. Ahmadinejad has already said he would “wipe out” Israel if he had nukes. And given Israel’s warnings to Iran and its prior attacks on Iraqi and Syrian nuclear targets, Iran will very likely try and nuke Israel first, especially with the very hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu now in charge. If so, the United States would presumably “obliterate Iran,” as Hillary Clinton earlier pledged. This makes an Iranian pre-emptive EMP attack on the United States all the more likely.

For those that wonder why Iran would invite its own obliteration by attacking the United Sates, understand that the apocalyptic, messianically driven mentality of their leadership views martyrdom as a reward and not a deterrent.

As a practical matter, however, Iran’s leadership would very likely survive a U.S. retaliatory attack, as would the great majority of their 70 million people. The Iranians, with their relatively low-tech society, would in many ways likely come out in much better shape than would the United States. And most important to the mullahs, we would then be incapable of displacing their regime.

So from their leadership’s horribly warped perspective, Iran’s the winner. Former Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani said, “the use of an atomic bomb against Israel would destroy Israel completely, while [the same] against the Islamic only would cause damages. Such a scenario is not inconceivable.”

No matter how you figure it, it’s an almost unbelievably scary situation, especially given the relative ease with which an EMP attack could be launched against our homeland and how utterly catastrophic it would be.

An EMP could be generated by detonating a single nuclear-armed missile some 200 miles above America’s heartland. Such a missile could be launched from a freighter off our Gulf coast. A chilling congressionally authorized EMP Commission report (April, 2008) said an EMP attack would render most computers inoperable, thus knocking out 70 percent or more of our electric grid system and leaving most of the country without light, heat, power, running water, communication, mechanized agriculture or transportation. Simply stated, the United States would be put back into the early 19th century, with most of our population dying from starvation and disease.

Note: The Iranians have already successfully test-fired missiles from a cargo vessel in the Caspian Sea. Some experts believe Mr. Ahmadinejad was alluding to an EMP attack when he suggested that “A world without America is conceivable.”

For those who do not delude themselves with naive fantasies about charming Mr. Ahmadinejad into abandoning his nuclear quest - for which the prospects are virtually zero, our nation’s only rational course of action should be black and white. Accordingly:

(1) Urgently initiate a massive buildup of the conventional weaponry needed to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities and wipe out its retaliatory capabilities as well as arm Israel to the teeth. Also station Aegis anti-missile ships along our coasts while beefing up homeland security and taking steps to mitigate the effects of an EMP attack. To do any less would be totally irresponsible and reckless.

(2) Launch a massive series of preemptive strikes on Iran as soon as possible and send in special ops forces to ensure the mission was accomplished.

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