Bombs could not stop Iran from getting nukes

(CBS News) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that he has not made a decision on whether to attack Iranian nuclear facilities. In the past, Israel has destroyed nuclear facilities in Syria and Iraq, but Iran is a different matter.

CBS News correspondent David Martin reports Iran can't build a nuclear weapon without the massive complexes of centrifuges that enrich uranium to bomb-grade level. One enrichment plant called Fordow is buried 250 feet beneath a mountain, where not even America's most powerful conventional weapon - a 30,000 pound bunker buster - can reach it. General James Cartwright, recently retired from the number two job in the U.S. military, said so just the other day during a panel discussion.

The Fordow facility is "deep enough underground that there aren't weapons to go down to penetrate that kind of activity," Cartwright said.

That does not mean Fordow is safe from attack. Its entrances could be sealed off, and there is a large, rectangular building which provides ventilation inside the mountain.

Admiral William Fallon, retired head of the U.S. Central Command, which would conduct a strike, says it's much more complicated.

"There are a lot of targets. This is not a one-time shot. It could take a fair amount of work," Fallon said.

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Israel is capable of a one-time strike, but only the U.S. has the air power to go back and hit targets again and again. Still, not even the U.S. could wipe out Iran's nuclear program.

"Even if you could, again, you're not going to kill the intellectual capital to just rebuild the centrifuges someplace else and continue on," Cartwright said.

Iran has plans to build 10 more enrichment plants, which is why Israel, with its relatively small air force, has said it cannot afford to wait much longer before it strikes.

The U.S. can afford to wait, but that would leave Israel entrusting its national security to another country, something it has never done.

[StephenLikesFootnotes]

All bombing can possibly do is slow the program while uniting their nation against us further and for the longer run -- making the Iranian people more willing to tolerate the consequences of their right-wing-God-and-guns gov't. 1945 technology can't be stopped forever; the Iranian people won't tolerate this gov't without an outside enemy.

[AllanJanze]

Is right-wing-God and guns government describing the American government. That description is apt for the American government. Perhaps, you should take another look at your words and then compare them with your government. Interesting!

[GeneralJDavis]

Of course bombs cannot prevent Iran from getting nukes. They already have nukes. They bought them from the disintegrating Soviet Union twenty years ago. Check the 570 page NTI nuclear chronology on Iran, and you'll see the stories that date back to the early nineties.

[sjc_1]

Ten tactical nuclear tipped bunker busters dropped at 70,000 feet from B2 bombers might spoil there day.

[AllanJanze]

I am sure that you are a christian! Who is the christian god, again? Oh, I almost forget, it is money and power.

[REDDHOG]

How about taking out Irans Leadership. Wait untill they are gathered at a meeting and end of story. Save all of us a lot of taxpayer money. Seal Team 6 is most likely up to the task.

[AllanJanze]

I am sure that the president and his family would remain in the white house for the rest of their lives.

[Paul_I]

Netanyahu knows that Israel by itself cannot take out Iran, and that a wounded Iran would be extremely dangerous for Israeli interests around the world. His best option is to beat the drum of pending disaster that worked for Cheney and Rumsfeld. His argument that Israel as a sovereign nation reserves the right to defend itself against sworn enemies is powerful. It also is the same argument that Iran makes to justify its right to have nuclear weapons if it wants. Iran posits that Iran is a sovereign country, that Israel is its sworn enemy and that Israel already has nuclear weapons. Frankly, no country in the Middle East should have nuclear weapons, but good luck changing that situation.

We should also keep in mind that the United States lived for decades in a Cold War with an enemy who vowed to bury us. If we had not had the extraordinary discipline to not attack, most of humanity would not have survived beyond the Cuban missile crisis.

[sjc_1]

You have an accurate assessment. Iran has lied over and over again saying it is for "peaceful purposes" but enriching uranium to 20%. The peaceful purposes are to blow Israel off the map and then there will be peace.

[AllanJanze]

It was not discipline that stop you, It is fear!

[cheeksforus]

So what is really Washingtons' end game, they've known what the Iranians have been up to for years and now a retired general is suppose to be the spokesman to the American public. I'd say we've been hosed again by the politicians and the military establishment. What else can we conclude other than big oil will never have the option of access to Iranians oil stock so now the sanctions? What's really going on here?

[infantryman1968]

Bombs could not stop Iran from getting nukes


LOL!


Obama approved the shipment of the new Massive Thermobaric's last fall.

The Irony.

[infantryman1968]

by starving1968-3 March 6, 2012 9:29 AM EST
Too many people put Israel above America's safety and security, all because their religion has them brainwashed.

How sad for this nation.


LOL!


So if Obama helps the Jews to attack the Islamo-Facists of Iran will you still throw the lever for him in November?

[starving1968-3]

What other choice is there?

Obama and "none of the above"?

[infantryman1968]

by ChristianTaliban March 6, 2012 7:54 AM EST
The latest ABC News-Washington Post poll points to President Obama as the biggest winner of the GOP primary contest.
President Obama has snuck ahead of Romney among registered voters, 51 percent to 45 percent. What's more, 50 percent of voters in the new poll approve of Obama's job performance and the same percentage say he deserves re-election. http://abcn.ws/z3pXsy


LOL!


Your stage name says it all!

So a poll with only 32% registered Republicans participating in it and Romney is at 45%?.....Really?

If I were you I would be worried lib............

On another note, If Obama helps the Jews to attack the Islamo-Facists of Iran will you still thow the lever for him in November?

[KansasCity-2012]

As I have said before....Iranians are not fools. Many forgot how much technology was shared up to 1979 between the USA, Iran, and Israel. The things we suffer today are from errors we committed after the revolution in 1979, when we broke off diplomatic dialogues with the Iranians. The Iranians are just like any other personality who becomes abandoned by their friend....resourceful and able to get over it and move on.

The most important resource the Iranians have is their people who research and operate their weapons programs.

Their greatest weakness is their leadership, which routinely missteps and makes blunders based on his emotions, rather than following plans submitted from his advisers.

Even a bunker 250 feet under a mountain requires fresh air. Smoke them out...it may take a couple of weeks, or disperse ordinary chlorine gas, which is heavy and allow it to drain into the bunker's lowest areas first.

Capturing their researchers alive would be the greatest yield of data.