http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article2369...

Sunday Times (London)
September 2, 2007

Pentagon 'three-day blitz' plan for Iran
Sarah Baxter

[Excerpts]

Washington - The Pentagon has drawn up plans for
massive airstrikes against 1,200 targets in Iran,
designed to annihilate the Iranians' military
capability in three days, according to a national
security expert.

Alexis Debat, director of terrorism and national
security at the Nixon Center, said last week that US
military planners were not preparing for "pinprick
strikes" against Iran's nuclear facilities. "They're
about taking out the entire Iranian military," he
said.

Debat was speaking at a meeting organised by The
National Interest, a conservative foreign policy
journal. He told The Sunday Times that the US military
had concluded: "Whether you go for pinprick strikes or
all-out military action, the reaction from the
Iranians will be the same." It was, he added, a "very
legitimate strategic calculus".

President George Bush intensified the rhetoric against
Iran last week, accusing Tehran of putting the Middle
East "under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust". He
warned that the US and its allies would confront Iran
"before it is too late".

One Washington source said the "temperature was
rising" inside the administration. Bush was "sending a
message to a number of audiences", he said to the
Iranians and to members of the United Nations security
council who are trying to weaken a tough third
resolution on sanctions against Iran for flouting a UN
ban on uranium enrichment.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) last
week reported "significant" cooperation with Iran over
its nuclear programme and said that uranium enrichment
had slowed. Tehran has promised to answer most
questions from the agency by November, but Washington
fears it is stalling to prevent further sanctions.
Iran continues to maintain it is merely developing
civilian nuclear power.

Bush is committed for now to the diplomatic route but
thinks Iran is moving towards acquiring a nuclear
weapon. According to one well placed source,
Washington believes it would be prudent to use rapid,
overwhelming force, should military action become
necessary.

Israel, which has warned it will not allow Iran to
acquire nuclear weapons, has made its own preparations
for airstrikes and is said to be ready to attack if
the Americans back down.