Training to take out Iran's nukes?
The New York Times reports on Friday morning that US officials believe that an Israeli military exercise last month is designed to prepare Israel's military to confront Iran (Hat Tip: Memeorandum). Israel has demurred.Israeli officials declined to discuss the details of the exercise. A spokesman for the Israeli military would say only that the country’s air force “regularly trains for various missions in order to confront and meet the challenges posed by the threats facing Israel.”I have two comments on this. First, of course Israel is preparing to meet the threat from Iran and from every other country that wishes to destroy us. We would have to be idiots not to be prepared. (Yes, our current leadership is idiotic, but fortunately, the IDF sometimes takes a longer-range view than the incompetents currently in political power).
But the scope of the Israeli exercise virtually guaranteed that it would be noticed by American and other foreign intelligence agencies. A senior Pentagon official who has been briefed on the exercise, and who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the political delicacy of the matter, said the exercise appeared to serve multiple purposes.
One Israeli goal, the Pentagon official said, was to practice flight tactics, aerial refueling and all other details of a possible strike against Iran’s nuclear installations and its long-range conventional missiles.
A second, the official said, was to send a clear message to the United States and other countries that Israel was prepared to act militarily if diplomatic efforts to stop Iran from producing bomb-grade uranium continued to falter.
“They wanted us to know, they wanted the Europeans to know, and they wanted the Iranians to know,” the Pentagon official said. “There’s a lot of signaling going on at different levels.”
Several American officials said they did not believe that the Israeli government had concluded that it must attack Iran and did not think that such a strike was imminent.
Second, what purpose does disclosing this to the New York Times serve? Why did someone in the US Defense Department or the CIA go to the trouble to make sure this was disclosed in the media? I think the answer is obvious.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:56 PM
2 Comments:
Practice makes perfect. Just ask the Iraqis.
The Iranians ridicule Israel's self-defense capabilities. They think Jews are weak and defenseless. I think they will be surprised at what Israel will do to survive. The exercises in the Mediterranean are just the tip of the IDF iceberg, so to speak.
Post a Comment
<< Home