Airyx wrote:


We also have a functioning Air Force base at Kirkuk, Iraq. There is
a squadron of F-16's based there.

Of course, they can conduct a single heavy strike at any time with
what is currently on-station.

In that scenario, the CAWs and F-16 squadron would just provide force
protection (CAP, BARCap, SEAD). The carrier's escorts would conduct
cruise missle strikes with their BGM-109's, in coordination with
AGM-86Cs from B-52s out of Diego Garcia. Then you'd have B-1s and
B-2s conducting precision strikes using GAMs and JDAMs.

This can be done at any time within a couple of day's notice, which
is why those patrol stations are always maintained, it just can't be
sustained without additional assets.


Any strike on Iran from an Iraqi base would simply be politically
suicidal. We would weld the Shiite lunatics into a single anti
American force

"Iran, which President Bush dubbed one of three nations in an "axis of
evil," has become Iraq's closest ally after the United States, and the
countries' new relationship is a dramatic turnabout after decades of
tension, highlighted by the 1980-88 war that resulted in more than a
million casualties. It is a major shift even from the tentative ties
established last year by the U.S.-appointed interim government of Prime
Minister Ayad Allawi, which often charged that Iran was meddling in Iraq."

Iran, Iraq Herald 'New Chapter' in Shiite-Led Alliance
Former Enemies to Forge Closer Ties On Security, Economy, Leaders Say
By Andy Mosher and Robin Wright
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, July 17, 2005; Page A21

Of course we routinely demonstrate our contempt for our puppet
government in Iraq, but attacking Iran from Iraq would force our puppets
to attack us or flee the country in the last helicopter flying out of
Baghdad

Bush made the Shiite alliance
Now we have to live with it

Vince