@Mercenary
Maybe because Iran's Nuclear Facilities are dispersed across this vast country and are deeply buried underground. Israel lacks the ability to penetrate deep within those facilities to take them out. And Israel will only have the ability to perform 1 sortie of this kind over Iran. Iran's nuclear facilties need multiple sorties to be decimated.
Israel can conduct numerous sorties according to the need. They have the equipment and everything else needed to do so. Iran's facilities are not at one place, agreed. But for fighters/ground-attack aircraft this distance can be easily skimmed. Also we must remember the Israeli attack might not come from only Israeli land, they would use other areas as bases/etc.
for launching the attack. Plus, eventhough it might be capable enough, Israel would definitely get
US support.
Lets not forget USS Enterprise and the 5th fleet (redeployed from Bahrain) are right there to counter Iran. Long-range F/A-18 fighters from these aircraft carriers and battle groups would be fully capable of destroyring Iran's nuke facilities, irrespective of under which rock they might be located.
Plus, eventhough it might be hypocritic (like you said) to use nukes on Iran, we cannot rule out a conventional missile strike on Iran's nuke facilities via Israel (Jericho-series an' others). This woud be game over for Iran's n-programme.
Iran's nuclear facilities are buried deep underground and beneath mountains. It needs Tactical Nukes or Very Heavy Ordnance Bombs to penetrate through so much earth to reach their targets.
Still nothing that cannot be executed properly. A Strike Eagle with full ordnance of air-to-ground bombs/munitions or cruise missiles like Delilah can do the job to some extent as well. Although I think sprays of JDAMs would be the best resort for Israel to wipe them out. Can't tell what US would use if they barge in though. Majority of the facility would be destroyed
with proper armament, that would be enough to render them non-functional. However IF and when it proves futile, or is not
planned to be so this way, then they'll use the bomber option for all they care.
Read Seymour Hersh's articles about the strategies used by Bush and Obama administrations to deal with Iran. Both arrived at the same conclusion that Tactical Nukes were the best option but it will look highly hypocritical to use nuclear weapons on a country to prevent it from making nuclear weapons.
Rule out use of tactical nukes by allied side. They'll use conventional missile strikes on nuke facilities if the situation gets really worse. But nukes wont be used.
I don't believe Iran is making a nuclear weapon. I believe the USA's NIE which stated that Iran stopped pursuing Nuclear Weapons in 2003 when Saddam was overthrown.
Israel can set Iran back by a max for a year in its nuclear program but it will not deliver the knockout blow required.
Ahhh...okay lets not divert this into the topic of "will Iran make a nuke or not". What Iran is doing right now is more well-assesed by the Israeli and US militaries rather than others. And they would decide whether a strike is required or not directly upon what Iran plans to do.
An Israeli strike would set back Iran for ATLEAST 4-5 years to 8 maximum. This can be estimated because we would know what stage Iran's nuke programme is, what their economic and infrastructual abilities are, how much help they would recieve from foreign nations, and how much help/assistance they would be allowed to receive, etc.
Thats not my assessment, thats the assessment of Chairman of Joint Chiefs, Martin Dempsey. No offense to you, I trust his assessment over yours.
Take it for his word on the issue for all you like. I wont forbid you. But I would like to tell you that the assesments of these so-called experts on world affairs and others could go completely wrong in specific situations. Same point was raised by Gambit a while ago. One thing is, they do not assess the actual inside situation, they comment on what they think, how it appears to be, and where it could go if this appears to continue. Two, they cant read the minds of the
world leaders and military high command concerned here. Their thoughts and plans could be completely different from what is assessed by these guys.
regards,