Writing for The Wonk Room, 24 January 2010, blogger Max Bergmann persuasively dismisses calls by US conservatives to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities. Noting that it is safe to assume that Iran has taken steps to protect its program, Bergmann argues that there is no way to tell whether an attack is successful – there will be no way to tell whether known underground facilities have been damaged, and no way to know whether there are other unknown facilities that have been missed.
Bergmann concludes:
The day after any attack on Iran, there will be immediate calls for more military action, as Iran still might have a fully capable and operational nuclear program. The only way to be sure that Iran isn’t developing a nuclear program, it will be argued, is to launch an invasion that results in the change of regime.
So when the right talks about taking out Iran’s nuclear program, they are really not talking about surgical strikes, they are talking about regime change. And that in effect would likely mean a full blown invasion involving thousands of American troops on the streets of Tehran.
It is hard to disagree with any of that, and it is probably what the John Boltons of this world intend.
Read Bergmann’s full report here.
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