(Wall Street Journal) Col. (ret.) Timothy J. Geraghty - On Nov. 4, 2009, Israeli commandos intercepted a ship 100 miles off the Israeli coast carrying hundreds of tons of weapons from Iran bound for Hizbullah in Lebanon. Since the 2006 war, Iran has rearmed Hizbullah with 40,000 rockets that will likely rain on Israeli cities - and even European cities and U.S. military bases in the Middle East - if Iran is attacked. Our 200,000 troops in 33 bases are vulnerable. Iran is capable of disrupting Persian Gulf shipping lanes, which could cause the price of oil to surge, and could also create mayhem in oil markets by attacking Saudi oil refineries. Moreover, Iran possesses Soviet-made SS-N-22 "Sunburn" supersonic anti-ship missiles that it could use to contest a naval blockade. I have seen this play before. In 1983, I was the Marine commander of the U.S. Multinational Peacekeeping Force in Beirut. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps trained and equipped Hizbullah to execute attacks that killed 241 of my men and 58 French peacekeepers on Oct. 23, 1983.
2010-01-05 10:03:52Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive