Could Iran be Next...and Soon?

There are reports out today that the U.S. is considering a strike at Iran:

The United States government reportedly began coordinating with NATO its plans for a possible military attack against Iran.

The German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel collected various reports from the German media indicating that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are examining the prospects of such a strike.

According to the report, CIA Director Porter Goss, in his last visit to Turkey on December 12, requested Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to provide military bases to the United States in 2006 from where they would be able to launch an assault.

This is not exactly breaking news. If we've got war plans on file for invading Canada (which we do), I'm sure there are plenty of scenarios planned out for Iran as well. And given their nutball president and all his anti-Israel remarks, I'll bet the Israelis are working on a few options of their own.

The U.S. (and all sane governments) want the Iranian nuke program stopped before they produce a weapon, the first of which would surely hit Israel. However, I don't think the U.S. wants to see Israel take out the nuke program on its own, as it did Iraq in the 80's. For one thing, it's a lot longer flight to Iran from Israel, and a surprise attack would be impossible to carry off. Besides that, the political implications would be huge.

It would not surprise me if the U.S., in cooperation with NATO, were to make strategic strikes against Iranian facilities sometime in 2006. What that would lead to, who knows. We have enough forces in the area to do the job, and provide ground support should the Iranians get cranky. It won't be pretty, but needs to be done.