U.S. Forces Could Attack Iran if Needed

[unhappycamper]

U.S. Forces Could Attack Iran if Needed
Associated Press | October 19, 2007
WASHINGTON - While military action against Iran is a last resort, the U.S. has the resources to attack if needed despite the strains of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the top U.S. military officer said Thursday.

Navy Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the focus now is on diplomacy to stem Iran's nuclear ambitions and its support for insurgents in Iraq.

But, he told reporters, "there is more than enough reserve to respond (militarily) if that, in fact, is what the national leadership wanted to do."

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons could set of an arms race in the Middle East. "The risk of an accident or a miscalculation or of those weapons or materials falling into the hands of terrorists seem to me to be substantially increased," he said.

Appearing together before reporters for the first time since Mullen became chairman on Oct. 1, they expressed concern about Iran and Turkey - hot spots commanding attention even as the military focuses on the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Both leaders warned of serious repercussions if Congress were to pass a nonbinding resolution labeling as genocide the killing of up to 1.5 million Armenians in the final years of the Ottoman Empire, around World War I.


REst of article at: http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,153437,00.html?wh=wh



uhc comment: Remember the 22^nd MEU??? http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=259x5533

[liberal N proud]

1. "While military action against Iran is a last resort"

PLEASE! We all are grown ups here and know that bu$h already has made plans to attack Iran. It is just a matter of when will he do it.
A matter of what has to happen in the US to get the people to support his escalation of war into Iran.

[MrModerate]

2. By "resources to attack" I presume he means . . .

One or a hundred or a thousand of our aging, increasingly decrepit Cold-War era nukes, retargeted to turn the whole country of Iran into radioactive lava to a depth of 12 feet. (Which, incidentally, wouldn't be deep enough to reliably take out their enrichment facilities.)

I can definitely see that one working out to a happy ending.

[hobbit709]

3. Attack, yes.

But there's a big difference between blowing everything up with air strikes and controlling the area afterwards. We don't have enough grunts to do the latter. Can't steal the oil if you don't control the territory-like we're doing so well in Iraq.