Letters to the Editor
Bill Owen
Published Letters: 559 Editor's Choice: 6
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@ Amateur Historian WWII
[Read the article: The dangerous hostility game with Iran]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Who cares what Molotov did? That's a complete non- sequitur.
This topic requires it's own post. At one point the Russians' were taking on 75% of German military on the Eastern Front (that includes personnel, planes, tanks etc.) The Battle of Kursk, forgotten by Americans and amateur historians, involved 10,000 tanks - on each side.
Americans like to think that D-Day was the turning point in the war, it was not, Stalingrad was.
On D-Day, when 120 thousand Americans, English and Canadians were landing on beaches of Normandy (protected by second-grade mixed troops, old men and Hitler Jungend) more than 3,000,000 elite German troops were fighting on the East against Russians. The Russians lost 20 million people chewing up the Nazis -- if it weren't for the Russkies, we'd all be goose-stepping now.
It wasn't until late 1944 that American troops in England outnumbered the Canadians. The Battle of the Atlantic, the longest running battle of the war, 1939-45, was, as Churchill said, '... the only thing that ever really frightened me during the war was the U-boat peril', as I am sure you are aware, America was not active in that battle until 1942, even then this vital lifeline was largely a British/Canadian effort. (Canada had the third largest navy by the end of the war.)
America helped though, they did send the Russians 450,000 trucks, Mr. Ford did quite well on that project I understand.
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What an Attack on Iran will look like, and the consequences...
[Read the article: The dangerous hostility game with Iran]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It's important to understand the probable consequences of an attack on Iran...
Day One - The War With Iran
By Douglas Herman
Full article here: http://www.rense.com/general69/dayone.htm
The war began as planned. The Israeli pilots took off well before dawn and streaked across Lebanon and northern Iraq, high above Kirkuk. Flying US-made F-15 and F-16s, the Israelis separated over the mountains of western Iran, the pilots gesturing a last minute show of confidence in their mission, maintaining radio silence.
Just before the sun rose over Tehran, moments before the Muslim call to prayer, the missiles struck their targets. While US Air Force AWACS planes circled overhead--listening, watching, recording--heavy US bombers followed minutes later. Bunker-busters and mini-nukes fell on dozens of targets while Iranian anti-aircraft missiles sped skyward.
The ironically named Bushehr nuclear power plant crumbled to dust. Russian technicians and foreign nationals scurried for safety. Most did not make it.
Targets in Saghand and Yazd, all of them carefully chosen many months before by Pentagon planners, were destroyed. The uranium enrichment facility in Natanz; a heavy water plant and radioisotope facility in Arak; the Ardekan Nuclear Fuel Unit; the Uranium Conversion Facility and Nuclear Technology Center in Isfahan; were struck simultaneously by USAF and Israeli bomber groups.
The Tehran Nuclear Research Center, the Tehran Molybdenum, Iodine and Xenon Radioisotope Production Facility, the Tehran Jabr Ibn Hayan Multipurpose Laboratories, the Kalaye Electric Company in the Tehran suburbs were destroyed.
Iranian fighter jets rose in scattered groups. At least those Iranian fighter planes that had not been destroyed on the ground by swift and systematic air strikes from US and Israeli missiles. A few Iranian fighters even launched missiles, downing the occasional attacker, but American top guns quickly prevailed in the ensuing dogfights.
SECTION OMITTED FOR BREVITY...
CNN reported violent, anti-American protests in Paris, London, Rome, Berlin and Dublin. Fast food franchises throughout Europe, carrying American corporate logos, were firebombed.
A violent coup toppled the pro-American Pakistan president. On the New York Stock Exchange, prices fell in a frenzy of trading--except for the major petroleum producers. A single, Iranian Shahab missile struck Tel Aviv, destroying an entire city block. Israel vowed revenge, and threatened a nuclear strike on Tehran, before a hastily called UN General Assembly in New York City eased tensions.
An orange alert in New York City suddenly reddened to a full-scale terror alarm when a package detonated on a Manhattan subway. Mayor Bloomberg declared martial law. Governor Pataki ordered the New York National Guard fully mobilized, mobilizing what few national guardsmen remained in the state.
President Bush looked shaken at 2 PM. The scroll below the TV screen reported Persian Gulf nations halting production of oil until the conflict could be resolved peacefully. Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, announced a freeze in oil deliveries to the US would begin immediately. Tony Blair offered to mediate peace negotiations, between the US and Israel and Iran, but was resoundingly rejected.
By 6 PM, Eastern Standard Time, gas prices had stabilized at just below $10 a gallon. A Citgo station in Texas, near Fort Sam Houston Army base, was firebombed. No one claimed responsibility. Terrorism was not ruled out.
At sunset, the call to prayer--in Tehran, Baghdad, Islamabad, Ankara, Jerusalem, Jakarta, Riyadh--sounded uncannily like the buzzing of enraged bees.
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You will all be screaming for, "more security"
[Read the article: Ask the pilot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If Cheney decides to shoot down another airplane...