THWARTING IRAN'S NUKE PLANS

Barcepundit makes note of this article in TODAY'S Sunday Telegraph in the UK:

Strategists at the Pentagon are drawing up plans for devastating bombing raids backed by submarine-launched ballistic missile attacks against Iran's nuclear sites as a "last resort" to block Teheran's efforts to develop an atomic bomb.

Central Command and Strategic Command planners are identifying targets, assessing weapon-loads and working on logistics for an operation, the Sunday Telegraph has learnt.

They are reporting to the office of Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary, as America updates plans for action if the diplomatic offensive fails to thwart the Islamic republic's nuclear bomb ambitions. Teheran claims that it is developing only a civilian energy programme.

"This is more than just the standard military contingency assessment," said a senior Pentagon adviser. "This has taken on much greater urgency in recent months."

Barcepundit quips, "Not much hard evidence in the piece, but it would be foolish to think that such planning is not taking place. But this report sounds more like a calculated leak / warning than anything else, which is fine with me..."

Fine with me too.

UPDATE:

A.J. Strata at The Strata-Sphere posts:
"Actually, we do this on a regular basis. We update attack plans with the latest intel and rehearse the logistics. I had the pleasure of helping prototype the systems that help do the planning effort. But they are also serious. My suspicion is we not only are increasing the virtual rehearsals, we are pre-positioning the required resources. As can be seen in the reporting:

“This is more than just the standard military contingency assessment,” said a senior Pentagon adviser. “This has taken on much greater urgency in recent months.”

I said it a while ago that we would not allow Iran to have access to nuclear WMD and the ability to distribute it to terrorists. Their bluff will be called by this summer. And Republicans will probably pay a price at the polls for it. But you do what you have to do."