Sherwood Ross: Attacking Iran with Nuclear Weapons

US plans to attack Iran with a mix of nuclear and conventional weapons have been in readiness since June, 2005, according to Michel Chossudovsky, a distinguished authority on international affairs. "Confirmed by military documents as well as official statements, both the US and Israel contemplate the use of nuclear weapons directed against Iran," writes professor Michel Chossudovsky, Director of the Center for Research on Globalization in Montreal. The plans were formulated in 2004. The previous year, Congress gave the Pentagon the green light to use thermo-nuclear weapons in conventional war theaters in the Middle East and Central Asia, allocating $6 billion in 2004 alone to create the new generation of "defensive" tactical nuclear weapons or "mini-nukes". "In 2005, Vice President Dick Chaney ordered USSTRATCOM (Strategic Command) to draft a 'contingency plan' that included "a large-scale air assault on Iran employing both conventional and tactical nuclear weapons," Chossudovsky writes. The plan went beyond the terms of reference outlined in the Pentagon's 2001 Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), which called for a "preemptive" "first strike use" of nuclear weapons against Russia and China as well as Iran and North Korea. The 2005 plan identified more than 450 strategic targets in Iran, including numerous alleged nuclear-weapons-program development sites. The plan, incredibly, was rationalized on a second 9/11 type attack on the US that Cheney believed Iran would allegedly support! "President Obama has largely endorsed the doctrine of pre-emptive use of nuclear weapons formulated by the previous administration," Chossudovsky writes in his new book, "Towards a World War III Scenario: The Dangers of Nuclear War". His Administration"has also intimated it will use nukes in the event of an Iran response to an Iran response to an Israeli attack on Iran."