Great idea, too bad Obama would never do it
President Obama has already taken one potential source of leverage off the table by promising to veto legislation that threatens tighter economic sanctions on Iran. This leaves military pressure as the only option. But after the Obama administration's unenforced "red lines" in Syria and Ukraine, Iran is understandably dismissive of the threat of U.S. military action. That leaves Israel.
The U.S. has previously recognized the importance of Israeli military pressure against Iran's nuclear-weapons program, some of which is fortified and buried underground. In 2012, President Obama signed the United States-Israel Enhanced Security Cooperation Act, which called for the delivery of aerial refueling tankers and bunker-buster munitions to Israel.
Israel has 2,000- and 5,000-pound bunker-buster bombs, some of which were delivered by the Obama administration. Iranian planners, however, might hope that these will prove insufficient to do major damage. The U.S. should remove such doubt by providing Israel with the capability to reach and destroy Iran's most deeply buried nuclear sites. The U.S. could do this by providing an appropriate number of GBU-57 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs, known as the Massive Ordnance Penetrator or MOP, and several B-52 bombers.
The Pentagon has developed the MOP bomb specifically for destroying hardened targets. It can penetrate as deeply as 200 feet underground before detonating, more than enough capability to do significant damage to Iran's nuclear program. There are no legal or policy limitations on selling MOPs to Israel, and with an operational stockpile at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, the U.S. has enough in its arsenal to share.
Israel, however, also lacks the aircraft to carry the MOP. Which means the U.S. would need to provide planes capable of carrying such a heavy payload. Only two can do so: the B-52 and the stealth B-2.
The U.S. has only 20 B-2s and would not share such a core component of nuclear deterrence. Nor is the Pentagon willing to part with active B-52s. Of the 744 built since 1955, all but roughly 80 have been decommissioned, sent to the "boneyard" at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona, and, in compliance with arms-control-treaty obligations, mostly rendered inoperable. With plans for a new long-range bomber delayed by defense-spending cuts and sequestration, current plans call for keeping the active duty B-52s in service for at least another 20 years.
But there are more than a dozen of the relatively "newest" B-52H bombers—built in the early 1960s—in storage. Some of these should be delivered to Israel. There's no legal or policy impediments to their transfer; they would just have to be refurbished and retrofitted to carry the MOP.
By transferring to Israel MOPs and B-52Hs the administration would send a signal that its ally, which already has the will, now has the ability to prevent a nuclear Iran.Do any of you see Obama doing this? There's only a slight chance if he decides he wants to influence the outcome of the midterm elections.
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, bunker busters, IAF, Iranian nuclear threat, Massive Ordnance Penetrator
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:16 AM
4 Comments:
Learning to be expert at flying a new aircraft isn't like driving a new car off the dealer's lot. A lot of training goes into it. The IAF has never had anything even remotely similar to the B-52. Then, of course, there is the need to train for the specific scenario. Seems like a veeeerrry long shot, to me.
Not only is there no chance of our President acting in a way that would deter Iran, Syria, Hizballah or Hamas, but there is a very real possibility that any reliance on the American Administration will be completely undermined across a spectrum of fault lines including... public anti-Israel rhetoric by the President and the State Department and their proxies in the supine Press, by UN malfeasance in the person of Ms. Power, double-dealing on Israel's strategic needs with the Russians (more flexibility in his second term) and tipping Israel's hand to its enemies in advance of a strike (see the various leaks regarding stand-off weapons use in Lebanon and Syria, and the disclosures on Stuxnet). There is no sane reason for Israel to expect strategic aid to abet an attack from the US now.
Not only is there no chance of our President acting in a way that would deter Iran, Syria, Hizballah or Hamas, but there is a very real possibility that any reliance on the American Administration will be completely undermined across a spectrum of fault lines including... public anti-Israel rhetoric by the President and the State Department and their proxies in the supine Press, by UN malfeasance in the person of Ms. Power, double-dealing on Israel's strategic needs with the Russians (more flexibility in his second term) and tipping Israel's hand to its enemies in advance of a strike (see the various leaks regarding stand-off weapons use in Lebanon and Syria, and the disclosures on Stuxnet). There is no sane reason for Israel to expect strategic aid to abet an attack from the US now.
Are you kidding? The US should stop paying Israel its $3.8 Billion per year allowance, push Palestine to join the UN as a full fledged member and walk away from the both of them. What a waste of our time, money and patience. Aside from that, everyone knows Israel has all the nukes it needs...unlike Iran who Israel wants to open itself up for inspections, the very thing Israel won't do. What do they need more weapons for?
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