US: Iran Attack Plans Ready if Needed

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hEuGxeUZUXCpOZ2382LTOmg9dMGwD8SPLTG80

By ROBERT BURNS – 8 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. defense officials have signaled that up-to-date attack plans are available if needed in the escalating crisis over Iran's nuclear aims, although no strike appears imminent.

The Army and Marine Corps are under enormous strain from years of heavy ground fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Still, the United States has ample air and naval power to strike Iran if President Bush decided to target nuclear sites or to retaliate for alleged Iranian meddling in neighboring Iraq.

Among the possible targets, in addition to nuclear installations like the centrifuge plant at Natanz: Iran's ballistic missile sites, Republican Guard bases, and naval warfare assets that Tehran could use in a retaliatory closure of the Straits of Hormuz, a vital artery for the flow of Gulf oil.

The Navy has an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf area with about 60 fighters and other aircraft that likely would feature prominently in a bombing campaign. And a contingent of about 2,200 Marines are on a standard deployment to the Gulf region aboard ships led by the USS Kearsarge, an amphibious assault ship. Air Force fighters and bombers are available elsewhere in the Gulf area, including a variety of warplanes in Iraq and at a regional air operations center in Qatar.

But there has been no new buildup of U.S. firepower in the region. In fact there has been some shrinkage in recent months. After adding a second aircraft carrier in the Gulf early this year — a move that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said was designed to underscore U.S. long-term stakes in the region — the Navy has quietly returned to a one-carrier presence.

Talk of a possible U.S. attack on Iran has surfaced frequently this year, prompted in some cases by hard-line statements by White House officials. Vice President Dick Cheney, for example, stated on Oct. 21 that the United States would "not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon," and that Iran would face "serious consequences" if it continued in that direction. Gates, on the other hand, has emphasized diplomacy.

These lunatics are going to do it, iI just know it.

to deliver the important propaganda on cue (then go back to feigning impartiality)

It says there is an Escalating Crisis. There must be an Escalating Crisis.

POWERED ELECTRICITY!!!!


AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Of course there are plans to attack/invade Iran. I mean that is the job of all those Generals in the Pentagon. They have plans to invade just about every place on the planet. It is there job to be prepared to go in and do it with minimal preparation time. But the AP reports this like the invasion is imminent simply because the plan is ready and the Pentagon so we could do it if asked. What do you think they are going to say, No, if we go we are gonna get our ass kicked. You don't say that in public...Imagine if a player ont the Atlanta Falcons came out be before a game and said when we play New England we are going to get the shit kicked out of us..He is never going to say it, even if he believes it (and sadly it is true). I am not saying there might not be other indicators but really, it is not news that Pentagon has plans to invade any country. It is what they do, it is what we pay them to do.