Chiefs get ready for attack on Iran

Washington Post:

The nation's top military officer said today that the Pentagon is planning for "potential military courses of action" against Iran, criticizing what he called the Tehran government's "increasingly lethal and malign influence" in Iraq.

Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said a conflict with Iran would be "extremely stressing" but not impossible for U.S. forces, pointing specifically to reserve capabilities in the Navy and Air Force.

"It would be a mistake to think that we are out of combat capability," he said at a Pentagon news conference.

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In a speech Monday at West Point, Gates said Iran "is hell-bent on acquiring nuclear weapons." He said a war with Iran would be "disastrous on a number of levels. But the military option must be kept on the table given the destabilizing policies of the regime and the risks inherent in a future Iranian nuclear threat."

Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, who was nominated this week to head all U.S. forces in the Middle East, is preparing a briefing soon to lay out detailed evidence of increased Iranian involvement in Iraq, Mullen said. The briefing will detail, for example, the discovery in Iraq of weapons that were very recently manufactured in Iran, he said.

"The Iranian government pledged to halt such activities some months ago. It's plainly obvious they have not. Indeed, they seem to have gone the other way," Mullen said.

He said recent unrest in the southern Iraqi city of Basra had highlighted a "level of involvement" by Iran that had not been understood by the U.S. military previously. "It became very, very visible in ways that we hadn't seen before," he said.

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At some point the US has to recognize that Iran is at war with us and has been for a long time. We should also recognize that its word is no good and promises of good behavior are illusory.

While there is no question that a war with Iran could be difficult, it will be much more difficult for Iran. In a matter of weeks we should be able to destroy most of its combat capability. We can also destroy the factories where most of its terror weapons and rockets it provides Hezballah are manufactured.

Iran has the capacity to disrupt shipping for a few days at the most.

Iran is hoping that Obama will win and it will be able to Okey Doke him into leaving them alone while they continue their war against us.

One more point on Iran--I think the fast boat fun and games that provoked the firing by a ship under US protection was probably done in hopes of driving up oil prices for their pitiful economy. It looks like it may have been successful in that regard.