WarSclerotic

Iran Sitting on Nuclear Weapons and ICBMs Makes Our World Safer According to the Administration
by Sara Noble April 10, 2015 Via the Independent Sentinel

(An ICBM breakout this year? I imagine the payload is not far behind. – LS)

The so-called nuclear agreement told Tehran they could: keep their underground Fordow fuel enrichment plant; they didn’t have to dismantle their Arak plutonium facility; they had the right to enrich uranium; and the centrifuges spinning are fine as well. Iran is now insisting that sanctions must be immediately canceled and the inspections are to be limited with no oversight of military dimensions.

The nuclear agreement is not an agreement at all.

One should always be suspicious of miraculous last-minute deals. It was more likely a tactic employed to keep the talks going without congressional interference.

More important than what is in the agreement, is what is not.

Since 2014, we have known that Iran is close to developing ICBMs, yet President Obama has sought to dismantle or disrupt U.S. ICBM systems and has not included ICBMs in the current nuclear talks with Iran. In fact, the deal is leaving in place enough nuclear capability for Iran to put nuclear warheads of some ICBMs even before the sunset clause is reached.

Why is Iran building them? You don’t build ICBMs in order to deliver insignificant explosives. Their only purpose is to carry nuclear warheads. Iran does not need an ICBM to hit Tel Aviv. Intercontinental missiles are for reaching other continents like North America.

The nuclear agreement is the end of nonproliferation. Iran is a rogue state that is illegally enriching with our blessing. The arms race has already begun in fragile countries with paper governments and transitory values.

President Obama’s alleged goal was nonproliferation to give us a safer world, but among the many mistakes he is making with the nuclear agreement is ignoring Iran’s missile development.

The 2014 Annual Report on Military Power of Iran stated that “Iran could have an ICBM capability by 2015,” said Rep. Mike Rogers (R., Ala.), chairman of the House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee last July when the report became public.

“We have known this [Iran’s interest in developing ICBMs] since well before the Obama administration,” Rogers said. “This unchanging fact is one of the reasons I have been and continue to be concerned about the administration’s efforts to dismantle our missile defenses.”

Rogers said that suggestions that somehow the danger of Iran’s developing long-range missile capabilities has diminished, or that the Pentagon report has altered U.S. intelligence assessments “is untrue.”

Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency confirmed that Iran is close to having ICBM capability.

James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Jan. 29, 2014, that “Iran would choose a ballistic missile as its preferred method of delivering nuclear weapons.”

There is some dispute over the year, but whether or not Iranian ICBMs will be ready this year or five years from now, there is no question that Iran is developing a robust missile program.

The concern that they will have ICBMs by 2015 appears to be jumping the gun but it’s not far off.

Iran is developing ballistic missiles with a range of up to 6,000 kilometers, capable of holding parts of the American homeland at risk but it might not come for five years or more.

According to the Center for Nonproliferation Studies, such capability is still only aspirational because as scientist David Wright points out, building ICBMs is tricky. In fact, it is unlikely that Iran would be capable of fielding an ICBM until 2020 at the earliest and even then its missiles would be “too large and cumbersome to be placed on a mobile platform.”

Iran currently has the largest and most diverse ballistic missile arsenal in the Middle East. Israel has more capable ballistic missiles, but fewer in number and type.

Iran is currently reliant on foreign suppliers for key ingredients and components which have not been readily forthcoming from Russia and China up until now, but Iran will come into large sums of money when the sanctions are removed. They are quickly becoming a powerful and dominant force in the region. Iran has also just forged a partnership with Russia.

Iran’s space program, which includes the successful launch of a small, crude satellite into low earth orbit using the Safir carrier rocket, proves the country’s growing ambitions and technical prowess.

Iran has an expanding nuclear and missile program representing Iran’s ultimate goals of attacking what it calls “the little Satan” (Israel) and “the great Satan” (the United States).

In a video obtained by Israel in January of this year, a new and previously hidden missile and launch site in Iran was at first thought to be capable of sending a rocket into space or launching an ICBM.

While this idea has been debunked as a misreading of satellite imagery by outfits such as Janes 360, the same publication said the facility is not yet complete. They also advised that while Iran claims they do not need missiles with a longer range than what they currently have, there are indications that they continue to work on long-range rockets.

Jane’s has seen a surge of activity at the Bid Ganeh missile development facility and Iran has invested significant resources into building a new launch facility near Shahrud that “could test longer-range, solid-fuel missiles”.

Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., recently made a stunning comment at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Iran.

“The more I hear from the administration and its quotes, the more it sounds like talking points that come straight out of Tehran,” the Democratic lawmaker said.

He has been an outspoken critic of Obama’s approach with Iran and Cuba. He is now under indictment on corruption charges. While the investigation into his dealings has been ongoing for two years, the timing of the indictment is curious.

Republican Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., told Jerusalem news agencies he can’t understand why the president promises to veto upcoming congressional legislation about Iran even before it’s been written.

“For Congress not to have the ability to weigh in on this, which has such geo-political importance and where Congress has played such an important role, is ridiculous and candidly irresponsible for Congress not to play a role,” Corker said.

Wouldn’t we all like to know the answer to that and as to why ICBMs are being ignored. It appears that Obama only intends to kick the can down the road to the next president while setting up a more dangerous chessboard on which to play. We should keep in mind that Iranians invented the game of chess and they lie.

The people behind the Obama platform, fully support a policy of appeasement and say things like this.

This is why our Constitution has safeguards to prevent one man from ruling alone. Hypothetically and using an extreme but not impossible example, one man alone could be a fool, a subversive, or a madman. Unfortunately, Congress has been rendered near-useless and there is a wide opening for fatal mistakes.

We have already appeased evil leaders, ignoring reality, sacrificing allies, and it hasn’t worked. It can’t work, it will never work.