icon bookmark-bicon bookmarkicon cameraicon checkicon chevron downicon chevron lefticon chevron righticon chevron upicon closeicon v-compressicon downloadicon editicon v-expandicon fbicon fileicon filtericon flag ruicon full chevron downicon full chevron lefticon full chevron righticon full chevron upicon gpicon insicon mailicon moveicon-musicicon mutedicon nomutedicon okicon v-pauseicon v-playicon searchicon shareicon sign inicon sign upicon stepbackicon stepforicon swipe downicon tagicon tagsicon tgicon trashicon twicon vkicon yticon wticon fm
18 Mar, 2010 06:19

Disarmament activist warns on new war

The US is apparently shipping large quantities of bunker-busting bombs to a British territory in the Indian Ocean.

A Scottish newspaper claims the ordinance, which was widely used in the Iraq invasion, is being sent to Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean – and it's raising fears that American forces could be preparing an attack on Iran.

Disarmament activist Alan Mackinnon, who saw the invoice on which the newspaper’s article is based, and believes it to be authentic, has memories of the run-up to the Iraq war.

“If these reports are true, it's a very depressing picture, because we are seeing exactly the same build-up as we saw seven years ago with the war in Iraq. The same claims were made about Iran – that it has weapons of mass destruction and is about to attack the West,” Mackinnon told RT.

According to Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to former US Secretary of State Colin Powell, any action on Iran would spell disaster for the US military machine.

“We can bomb them for 50, 60, 70 days and all we are going to do is to solidify 70-plus million Iranians in a very nationalistic feeling of anger and passion against us,” he told RT.

“Without ground forces – and our ground forces are pretty much tied up – you are not going to influence Iran to change its mind. To say that air power could be decisive against Iran is to say we are ridiculous. If we are contemplating nothing but air strikes against Iran we are in for a very disappointing conflict,” Wilkerson added.

Meanwhile, Paul Ingram from the British American Security Information Council told RT that currently Israel is far more likely to be quite seriously thinking about a military attack on Iran than the US.

Also, he said, the US military could be making these decisions quite independent of any political signals.

“The US military has a very established policy of bringing to the president all options they possibly can in a point of crisis,” Paul Ingram said.

As for bunker busters, Paul Ingram said they are “indeed an ideal weapon that the Americans would need should they launch an attack on Iran in order to destroy its nuclear facilities, many of which are buried deep underground.”

Read also – Iran: A sneak attack is on!

Podcasts
0:00
25:36
0:00
25:12