Skip to main content

Should the US Sell Bunker Buster Bombs to Israel?

CNS News is reporting that US Defense Department intends to sell 1,000 GBU-39 bombs to Israel for $77 million. Congress has thirty days to determine whether it will allow the deal to go through. Is it a good idea?

The specter of Iran is being held up as one reason that we should carry out the sale.
Some believe the bombs could be used in a strike against Iran’s fortified, underground nuclear facilities.

“It is vital to the U.S. national interests to assist Israel to develop and maintain a strong and ready self-defense capability,” the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a statement.

The Jerusalem Post reported on Monday that the bombs “would likely be used in the event of a military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities.”
The United States is already minding far too many other countries' business. With a huge outcry from American voters, the Establishment seems to be looking for a way to offload some of that responsibility.

Israel, with its own nuclear arsenal, already has enough ability to keep Iran in check. Even with the crazy Ahmadinejad, who is almost universally reviled in his own country, the chances of Iran foisting an attack on even Israel are very slim.

With the Bush Doctrine of preemption, the chances of Iran getting attacked by the US--or by our little-brother surrogate--are much more likely.
There is some speculation that if Israel were going to attack Iran it would do so after the U.S. elections in November and before the inauguration in January.
All the more reason not to sell bunker busters to Israel.
Labels:

Comments

  1. rmwarnick9/15/2008 01:09:00 PM

    Frank, are you suggesting the U.S. government should second-guess Israel? ;-)

    "Asked about the prospect of an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities, Ms. Palin said three times that the United States should not 'second-guess' Israeli decisions on self-defense."

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anne Rettenberg LCSW9/15/2008 08:03:00 PM

    No, it's not a good idea. It looks like we are encouraging Israel to bomb Iran, which could engulf (no pun intended) the whole region in war. How stupid can we be?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Frank Staheli9/18/2008 08:57:00 AM

    Richard,

    It would be nice if all we had to do were "not second guess". The problem is that we have provided Israel with so many armaments over the years that we've already encouraged them to play fast and loose with Iran.

    Elizabeth,

    I hope that it's not too late, that the provocations have not already been enough assumed by us and Israel that an Israeli attack on Iran is already in the cards. At any rate, selling bunker busters to them would by tacit encouragement by the US and would likely remove all doubt as to Israel's intent.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thank you for commenting. If you have a Google/Blogger account, to be apprised of ongoing comment activity on this article, please click the "Subscribe" link below.

Popular posts from this blog

School Vouchers: "The Bramble Memo"

$429 million? What? Where? The legislative fiscal analyst for the State of Utah calculated the costs to the public schools over the next 13 years if school vouchers are implemented. It said the costs would be $5.5M in the first year, and $71M in the 13th year. Suddenly, the number I have started seeing thrown around was $429 million, the total costs for vouchers over 13 years. Where did that number come from? Enter the mysterious "Bramble Memo". In the past few days several of us (Jeremy, Utah Taxpayer, Craig, Sara, Urban Koda, Jesse, and me) have (sometimes?) enjoyed a lively discussion about school vouchers in Utah . Jeremy clarified to me the costs of the venture by linking to a copy of the Utah Legislative Fiscal Analyst's Impartial Analysis (LFA) of the costs of Vouchers , found on "The Senate Site". In my previous voucher article, I quoted some of Lavar Webb's article from last Sunday's Deseret News, wherein he stated that those total costs ...
66 comments
Read more

Why Do Liberals Coddle the Radical Islamic Monster?

Many liberals and progressives in the United States and elsewhere support a radical Islamic fundamentalist movement which, if it came to power, would quickly wipe out their liberal progressive ideology. Why then, do so many liberals coddle the monster that would destroy them? The Answer lies in their long-stemmed hatred of Western liberty and free markets. Dick Morris' new revelation of Hillary Clinton's ties to Islamic fundamentalist terrorism provides an excellent backdrop for me to ask the question that Greg Allen of The Right Balance has been asking for quite some time, to wit: If many liberals stand for free sexuality, homosexuality, the use of drugs, binge drinking, and other mindless expressions of individuality, why do so many of them also look the other way when it comes to Islamic fundamentalism? Don't they know that Iran has put to death as many as 4,000 homosexuals? Don't they know that if Islamists come to power they will not only make sexual perversi...
52 comments
Read more

The Inhumanity of Bob Lonsberry: Waterboarding, Concentration Camps, and the the Bataan Death March

KNRS 570 radio talk show host Bob Lonsberry advocated waterboarding and other forms of torture during his show on April 21, 2009. More grotesquely, he was beaming with pride about his advocacy campaign. It's difficult to imagine then, that, by the same rationale, had Lonsberry been a German at the time of Hitler, or a Japanese during the Bataan Death March, that he would not have advocated torture of Jews in the concentration camps or the bayoneting and shooting of American soldiers on the Bataan trail. Torture, Torture, Everywhere! Nearly 80,000 American soldiers were captured by the Japanese in the To contemplate a discussion about whether or not torture is legal or whether it even works, it is first required to come to the conclusion that 'I am a child of God, but my adversary is a monkey'. Phillipines in 1942 and forced to march with no food and very little water for six days. If a man stumbled, if he didn't respond quickly to a command, or if he tried to get wat...
50 comments
Read more