Iran To Nuke Israel? Fallows, Frum and Hersh Respond

James Fallows in the latest Atlantic Monthly argues we shouldn't bomb Iran to stop it from making nukes. Among other things, war games conducted by retired Pentagon and intelligence people in 2004 under the auspices of the Atlantic demonstrated this, Fallows claims. Meanwhile Frum at National Review Online retorts that following Fallows' do-nothing counsel would be tantamount to giving nukes to Iran. And on Friday, Amadinejad repeats his thinly veiled threat to nuke Israel (AP article):

"Like it or not, the Zionist regime is heading toward annihilation," Ahmadinejad said at the opening of a conference in support of the Palestinians. "The Zionist regime is a rotten, dried tree that will be eliminated by one storm."

And Seymour M. Hersh in the latest issue of the New Yorker details the various signs and indications from insiders that the U.S. administration is already heavily into military planning, including infiltration of special ops into Iran with targeting lasers:

If the order were to be given for an attack, the American combat troops now operating in Iran would be in position to mark the critical targets with laser beams, to insure bombing accuracy and to minimize civilian casualties. As of early winter, I was told by the government consultant with close ties to civilians in the Pentagon, the units were also working with minority groups in Iran, including the Azeris, in the north, the Baluchis, in the southeast, and the Kurds, in the northeast. The troops “are studying the terrain, and giving away walking-around money to ethnic tribes, and recruiting scouts from local tribes and shepherds,” the consultant said. One goal is to get “eyes on the ground”—quoting a line from “Othello,” he said, “Give me the ocular proof.”