] The Iran crisis is more immediate in the eyes of the Bush ] administration, in part because Iran is among the ] president's "Axis of Evil." Israel, which has long ] regarded Iran as a more dire threat than Iraq, is making ] thinly veiled threats of a unilateral pre-emptive attack, ] like its 1981 airstrike against Iraq's Osirak nuclear ] reactor. "If the state decides that a military solution ] is required, then the military has to provide a ] solution," said Israel's new Air Force chief of staff, ] Maj. Gen. Elyezer Shkedy, in a newspaper interview last ] week. "For obvious reasons," he added, "we aren't going ] to speak of specifics." U.S. defense experts doubt that ] Israel can pull it off. Iran's facilities (which it ] insists are for peaceful purposes) are at the far edge of ] combat range for Israel's aircraft; They're also widely ] dispersed and, in many cases, deep underground. MSNBC - War-Gaming the Mullahs |