Intelligence estimates by the United States and European sources indicate that Iran could be as little as a year away from producing a nuclear bomb. \u00a0Additionally, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nation\u2019s nuclear watch agency, has uncovered evidence of Iran trying to produce highly enriched uranium for nuclear weapons for more than 25 years.\u00a0 Given that Iran is run by an Islamist government that supports terrorist activities around the world and that its current leader, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has said that the state of Israel should be \u201cwiped off of the map,\u201d the U.S. government is obviously very concerned with this development. \u00a0A decision will have to be made in the near future about how to handle this threat.<\/p>\n
In light of these developments it is useful and interesting to look back on how Israel handled a nuclear threat from another one of its enemies, Iraq in the 1980s. \u00a0When Iraq, under Saddam Hussein, tried to get nuclear weapons in the late 1970s and early 1980s the Israelis reacted by bombing their reactors at al-Tuwaitah.<\/p>\n
HISTORY<\/strong><\/p>\n In the late 1970s it became clear to the international community that Iraq was trying to acquire nuclear weapons under the guise of buying nuclear reactors for power generation. At the time, Iraq had expansionist ambitions and animosity toward what it called, \u201cthe Zionist entity,\u201d Israel. \u00a0The response of the world was alarm and some limited action.\u00a0 In April of 1979 the core of one of the Iraqi reactors was blown up, as it was awaiting shipment from France to Iraq, by Mossad agents.\u00a0 Over the next 15 months, a number of key nuclear scientists from Iraq and other Arab countries were assassinated by Israeli agents while the scientists were visiting western Europe.\u00a0 The spate of suspicious deaths, including throat cuttings, hit-and-run automobile accidents, sudden flu-like illnesses, and virulent \u2018food poisoning,\u2019 greatly slowed the pace of research on Iraq\u2019s nuclear program.<\/p>\n The next blow to Iraq\u2019s nuclear efforts came nine days after the start of the Iran-Iraq War, on Sept 30, 1980, when Iran sent two Iranian Phantom F-4-E jets to attack several targets, among them the uncompleted nuclear reactors at al-Tuwaitha.\u00a0 The Phantoms fired two rockets.\u00a0 One did not explode, and the other hit the housing of one of the reactors, damaging the dome and cooling system, but causing no significant destruction.\u00a0 Hundreds of French and Italian technicians and engineers working at the facility were evacuated, however, and work at al-Tuwaitha ground to a standstill.<\/p>\n Over the course of the following year, Israel, led by Prime Minister Menachem Begin considered various options, including attacking Iraq\u2019s reactors.\u00a0 Such a move entailed major concerns, including probable adverse world reaction, the distance from Israel to Iraq (over 1,100 miles to the target and back), and concern that even though Iraq was in a war with Iran, it might counter attack Israel as well.\u00a0 More important, Begin was concerned about the reaction of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat of Egypt, who had brokered a separate peace treaty with Begin at Camp David in 1979.\u00a0 While an attack would not violate Israel\u2019s treaty with Egypt, which called for Israel to pull out of the Sinai in April 1982, Sadat\u2019s reaction was still unpredictable.<\/p>\n Begin weighed the risks and decided that a nuclear-armed Iraq was too dangerous for Israel to accept and that a preemptive strike was worth any possible aftereffects.\u00a0 He felt that a relatively swift attack was the best option, particularly when Iraq was weakened by its ongoing ground war with Iran. And since the reactor was not yet in operation, an attack would not result in any kind of nuclear fallout over the city of Baghdad.\u00a0 By the end of March 1981, Mossad reported that foreign workers were returning to al-Tuwaitha, and that construction had resumed on the Osirak nuclear reactor.\u00a0 Begin and his advisors finalized plans for a surgical air strike on the Iraqi facility in early May.<\/p>\n THE ATTACK<\/strong><\/p>\n The attack, codenamed Operation Opera, took place on June 7, 1981.\u00a0 According to the Israeli governments official statement after the strike, it occurred on a Sunday, \u201con the assumption that the 100 to 150 foreign experts employed at the reactor would be absent on the Christian day of rest.\u201d\u00a0 Additionally, a late-afternoon attack would give the Israeli Combat Search and Rescue Team (CSAR), riding in CH-53 helicopters, all night to search for any downed pilots.\u00a0 At 3:00 pm, the CH-53s took position, hovering at 100 feet just west of the Jordanian border.\u00a0 The crews were not told what the mission was\u2014just that if a plane went down they had permission to violate any sovereign airspace to pick up the pilots.\u00a0 At 4:00 pm eight of Israel\u2019s American built F-16 fighter jets took off from Etzion airbase in the Sinai desert, carrying extra 370-gallon fuel tanks to increase their range.<\/p>\n Due to weight considerations, the F-16s were stripped of two of their four air-to-air Sidewinder missiles and jamming devices for protection against Iraqi MiGs and SAM-6 radars.\u00a0 Despite attempts to get their weight as low as possible, they still took off at a weight that exceeded nearly twice the planes\u2019 design specifications.\u00a0 They were equipped with special racks which carried two 2000-pound MK-84 iron \u201cdumb\u201d bombs, called dumb because they used gravity only in targeting.\u00a0 The idea was to make the bombing process as simple as possible.\u00a0 They were escorted by eight F-15 fighter interceptors for protection from Arab aircraft, to provide jamming of Iraqi radar over al-Tuwaitha, and to act as communications relay stations to a Boeing 707 command post that would be orbiting over Israel.<\/p>\n The fighters had to fly over or circumvent seven separate Arab airfields along their route of attack.\u00a0 This meant danger of aerial interception from Jordanian F-5-Es and Iraqi Mirage-4000s, MIG-23s and MIG-25s.\u00a0 At Tuwaitah itself, the fighters would face antiaircraft artillery (AAA) batteries and SAM-6s.<\/p>\n The route of the attack from take off in the Sinai was east across the Gulf of Acaba, then through the northern part of Saudi Arabia very near the border of Jordan, where Israel believed it had discovered some radar blind spots.\u00a0 Additionally, the Israelis had intelligence that the Saudis would only have one of their American-supplied Advanced Warning and Control System (AWACS) intelligence aircraft in the air at the time of the attack and that it would be overlooking the Persian Gulf.\u00a0 Radio communication, only to be made at five checkpoints, would be single words in English, the international language of aviation, so that if overheard the communication might be mistaken for a commercial flight.<\/p>\n The formation flew low, about 100 feet, and fast, about 360 knots, again to avoid detection.\u00a0 Once the formation was across Saudi Arabia, it turned towards Baghdad. The first bombers reached their target 12 miles past Baghdad.\u00a0 Once on scene, the attack took place in a matter of minutes.\u00a0 The F-16s swept across the sky in pairs of two, reaching 5000 feet in four seconds and then diving at the target, sending their bombs towards the sides of the reactor, as they had practiced for months in the Sinai. The first bombs hit the side of the reactor, opening holes for the second set of bombs, which found and destroyed the reactor inside.\u00a0 A French worker who witnessed the Israeli attack called the precision of the Israeli bombing \u201cstupefying.\u201d<\/p>\n Within about two minutes the attack, timed for sunset, was complete and the larger Tammuz I (or Osirak) reactor was destroyed.\u00a0 The smaller Tammuz II reactor\u2019s sensitive equipment and foundation were ruined.\u00a0 Iraqi antiaircraft unit personnel were eating when the attack occurred, which was another reason for the timing of the bombing, and had turned off their radars.\u00a0 As a result, there was a fatal delay in their reaction time, and no SAM-6s were fired at the Israeli planes.\u00a0 As predicted, the Saudi AWACS aircraft was facing the Persian Gulf and did not detect the Israeli aircraft.\u00a0 The attack squadron landed safely back at Etzion at 7:00 pm, having faced no enemy aircraft on the return flight.<\/p>\n WORLD REACTION<\/strong><\/p>\n The world universally condemned Israel\u2019s action, including the United \u00a0 States.\u00a0 The Reagan administration, normally a staunch ally of Israel, criticized the attack.\u00a0 The French called it \u201cunacceptable.\u201d \u00a0The British decried Israel\u2019s actions as \u201ca grave breach of international law.\u201d\u00a0 A New York Times<\/em> editorial railed, \u201cIsrael\u2019s sneak attack on a French-built nuclear reactor near Baghdad was an act of inexcusable and short-sighted aggression.\u201d A United Nations Security Council resolution denouncing Israel\u2019s raid was passed unanimously.\u00a0 However, Israel was never struck in reprisal and no UN sanctions were put in place against it (as a result of a threatened US veto).<\/p>\n CONCLUSION<\/strong><\/p>\n So, will this happen again?\u00a0 The Israeli\u2019s have continued to show a willingness to destroy nuclear facilities in countries that are enemies. On September 6, 2007 Israel destroyed a partially built Syrian nuclear reactor, allegedly constructed with help from North Korea.\u00a0 There was no military response from Syria.<\/p>\n A couple of factors would have to be resolved, however, before a strike on Iran could be made.\u00a0 First, Iran is a greater distance from Israel then Iraq was.\u00a0 Additionally, Iran has dispersed its nuclear sites and reportedly put some of its nuclear facilities underground and in cities which makes an attack much more difficult.\u00a0 Another important factor is thatIranis not caught up in a war against its neighbor likeIraqwas so it might counter attack.\u00a0 Iran has already threatened to attack Israel\u2019s reactor at Dimona if Israel attacks Iran\u2019s nuclear sites.\u00a0 Finally, the U.S. satellite photography that helped the Israelis prepare for their raid is no longer being shared.\u00a0 Outrage over the CIA\u2019s intelligence sharing with Israel led to restrictions on sharing intelligence about countries that were \u201can immediate threat or were on Israel\u2019s border.\u201d<\/p>\n What to do about a nuclearIranis a key question that theUnited \u00a0 Stateswill need to answer in the next couple of years.\u00a0 Looking at Israel\u2019s raid on Iraq\u2019s reactors provides insight into one of several possible responses.<\/p>\n So readers\u2014what do you think Israeli and\/or the United States will do vis-\u00e0-vis the Iranian\u2019s nuclear sites?\u00a0 Will there be an attack or will Israel and the United States let Iran go nuclear?\u00a0 Given that an Iranian nuclear scientist was killed by a car bomb in January 2012 and that three others were killed in explosions over the past two years is there a possible third way in the works to end Iran\u2019s nuclear ambitions?\u00a0 Will it work?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Intelligence estimates by the United States and European sources indicate that Iran could be as little as a year away from producing a nuclear bomb. \u00a0Additionally, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nation\u2019s nuclear watch agency, has uncovered … Continue reading