U.S. plans envision "broad attack" on Iran

http://news.scotsman.com/latest_international.cfm?id=103942007

Reuters
January 19, 2007

U.S. plans envision "broad attack" on Iran

[Excerpts]

WASHINGTON - U.S. contingency planning for military
action against Iran's nuclear program goes beyond
limited strikes and would effectively unleash a war
against the country, a former U.S. intelligence
analyst said on Friday.

"I've seen some of the planning....You're not talking
about a surgical strike," said Wayne White, who was a
top Middle East analyst for the State Department's
bureau of intelligence and research until March 2005.

"You're talking about a war against Iran" that likely
would destabilise the Middle East for years, White
told the Middle East Policy Council, a Washington
think tank.

"We're not talking about just surgical strikes against
an array of targets inside Iran. We're talking about
clearing a path to the targets" by taking out much of
the Iranian Air Force, Kilo submarines, anti-ship
missiles that could target commerce or U.S. warships
in the Gulf, and maybe even Iran's ballistic missile
capability, White said.

"I'm much more worried about the consequences of a
U.S. or Israeli attack against Iran's nuclear
infrastructure," which would prompt vigorous Iranian
retaliation, he said, than civil war in Iraq, which
could be confined to that country.

President George W. Bush has stressed he is seeking a
diplomatic solution to the dispute over Iran's nuclear
program.

But he has not taken the military option off the table
and his recent rhetoric, plus tougher financial
sanctions and actions against Iranian involvement in
Iraq, has revived talk in Washington about a possible
U.S. attack on Iran.
....

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