What costs over ten million dollars, is twenty feet long, weighs fifteen tons, (that’s 30,000 pounds), carries two and a half tons of high explosive, is satellite guided, and penetrates the earth up to 200 feet before it pulverizes “underground enemy hide-outs”?
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| Artist’s rendering. (Boeing Co. / July 15, 2009) |
It’s the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, aka MOP, recently purchased by the Air Force. Air Force General Scott Vander Hamm stated in an interview in Air Force Magazine that there is “no other weapon that can get after those hard and deeply buried targets like MOP can.”
With all the speculation over Iran working on a nuclear bomb using deep underground facilities, it would appear that such a bomb could be useful. However, Prince Turki al-Faisal, the former head of Saudi Arabia’s intelligence service, warned that an attack to disrupt Iran’s nuclear program “would be foolish and to undertake it I think would be tragic. If anything it will only make the Iranians more determined to produce an atomic bomb. It will rally support for the government among the population, and it will not end the program. It will merely delay it if anything.” Further he stated, “An attack on Iran I think will have catastrophic consequences, the retaliation by Iran will be worldwide.”
Sure, the world should just stand by and wait for Iran to complete its nuclear ambitions, then what? Should we be held hostage by a regime that threatens to destroy Israel and is directly responsible for killing our soldiers? NO! We need to publicly recognize the threat and tell the Iranian regime that we are serious about preventing them from having nuclear weapons.
What about UN sanctions against Iran? They have not worked. There have been four resolutions since 2006–numbers 1737, 1747, 1803 and 1929–all for the purpose of stopping Iran’s production of a nuclear bomb. Obviously these resolutions have had no impact. Perhaps a MOP would.
According to an article from Reuters, “Tensions over Iran’s nuclear ambitions have increased this month since the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report that Tehran appeared to have worked on designing a bomb and may still be conducting secret research to that end.”
The “godfather” of Iran’s ballistic missile program was killed last week along with 17 Revolutionary Guard Corps soldiers at the Bid Ganeh munitions base. We know that Israel considers Iran a threat, especially if they develop a nuclear bomb. There are unconfirmed reports that the Mossad (the Israeli secret service) is behind the bombing. Yet the Iranians claim it was an accident caused while moving munitions.
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| Photo of the blast. |
Also killed in the blast were the “pioneer” of Iranian missile development and Commander of the Revolutionary Guard Major General Hassan Moghaddam. I find it a bit suspicious that the General and the “godfather” of Iran’s missile program were in such close proximity to an “accidental” munitions blast that they were killed. It is very doubtful that they would be anywhere near the “movement” of such a large amount of explosives.
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had no comment concerning the blast while Ilan Mizrahi former head of the Mossad said, “I have no idea whether this blast was accidental or whether it was sabotage. But I will say God bless those who were behind it, because the free world should be doing its best to prevent Iran from achieving nuclear military capability.” Israel’s defense minister, Ehud Barak, said: “May there be more like it”.
Let’s not forget the blast at a Shahab missile facility last year and a bomb attack that killed physicist Masoud Ali Mohammadi on his way to work in Tehran last year. Of course, Israel and the US deny any involvement.
Could it be that Iran doesn’t want to admit it was the Mossad because they would have to do something about it? With all of their rhetoric aimed at destroying Israel one could speculate they would use such an opportunity to strike back. But my guess is that Iran doesn’t want to go down that road because they know they would lose.
Could it be that Israel may use a MOP to send a message? Why doesn’t Iran allow the IAEA to inspect its nuclear facilities to verify they have no intent to produce a nuclear bomb? My guess is because Iran is ruled by an evil regime and they could care less about world peace. Does Islam have anything to do with their hatred of the West?
Big Peace
