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High tech ayatollahs and why Israel and the world must prevent Iran from going nuclear.
In the 1980’s the Israeli Air Force did the world a favor by attacking Saddam Hussein’s small nuclear facility. Saddam Hussein was in no way the worldwide menace that Iran poses. He was for the most part a very local despot with local ambitions only. He was a Baathist thug, a large scale gang leader who sought to control and expand the areas around Iraq and was only vaguely ideological, his Muslim faith was second only to the driving sense to dominate and control. However nuclear weapons could have increased his delusions of grandeur to performing on a world stage. Israel made sure that never was on the table.
Iran is a totally different situation. Where Iraq was a secular/religious/crime syndicate composite, Iran is a theocracy. The deposing of the Shah’s US imposed oligarchy by the stern Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979 was a religious revolt against an imposed secular regime. Still Iran possessed a core of Western-educated and technologically able persons in its population and saw technology as a servant of Islam. Under the Ayatollahs and mullahs the nuclear development program advanced it to a current stage of over 140 secured and mostly underground fortified development sites. ( http://www.nti.org/country-profiles/iran/). The sale of the Grumman F-14 multirole fighter and Phoenix advanced missile system to the Shah’s Iran by the Nixon Administration added the reverse-technology element. The F-14 was the world’s most advanced interceptor at the time. Iran invested heavily in its development at the price of being on order for over 80.
(http://www.iiaf.net/aircraft/jetfighters/F14/f14.html) Other than the United States and Iran no other nation ever received this weapons system. When the Northrop F-18 replaced the F-14 all Tomcats were retired to storage. The Phoenix missile can engage enemy targets at over 125 miles and the advanced radar can engage six targets at a time. No US F-14 was ever lost to enemy action. Iran still maintains its fleet of F-14’s and a mix of F-4 Phantom and F-5, F-20 fighters. Its aircraft industry and missile development have put the engineering from these systems to good use in developing intermediate and intercontinental missiles. Iran has a space program and satellite system as well.
Iran has placed many of its nuclear facilities underground and has spread them throughout the country. The Iraq War of 2003 saw bunker buster bombs and munitions deliver killing blows to Iraqi command and communications systems. These munitions have been repeatedly denied to Israel. The dispersal of Iran’s nuclear research and centrifuge locations makes a concentrated strike difficult to near impossible for even the largest strike capability. Obviously the longer Iran has to produce fissionable weapons grade material the greater the danger to the region and much of the world. The constant delaying tactics by Iran’s negotiators and the leniency and misguided trust from the Obama Administration is unconscionable. Time is slipping away to a nuclear armed and adventurous Mahdist theocracy intent on conquest.
The world faces two threats from two Mahdist sects. The Iraq/Syria faction uses brutality and internet intimidation and recruitment to expand its physical territory. The high-tech party in Tehran uses its scientists, technology and the incredible gullibility of a detached President and his small clique to build an arsenal. The clock is ticking to a confrontation with a nuclear armed sect bent on creating the conditions for the return of the 12th Caliph. This situation cannot be viewed in conventional geopolitical terms. The meeting of the Eastern and Western minds is impossible due to the inadequate understanding by the United States and its European allies. It is expedient that Israel and regional governments who are the most threatened present the negotiators with a plan based on a comprehension of 7th century ideology and 21st century technology. “No nuclear Iran” period.
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