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Israel may have destroyed Iranian centrifuges simply by cutting power

theintercept.com

131–140 of 287 posts

Re: Israel may have destroyed Iranian centrifuges simply by cutting power

#131
Holocaust day was one week ago, I thought a lot about my relatives that were murdered. The atmosphere in Israel right now is very solemn and difficult (was before but now even more). Seeing the unravelling situation with promises of 60% enrichment, I fear the trains are set in motion and hard to stop. And as 70 years ago, Britain and US knew what the Germans were doing with these trains but did nothing, there is a real possibility of repeat.

Re: Israel may have destroyed Iranian centrifuges simply by cutting power

#132

Israel is fighting for its existence. Iran leadership routinely makes threats to destroy America and Israel. This often get ignored or dismissed. But like waving a gun in a cops face. Well bad things happen. One nuke will piss America off. One nuke and Israel will just be gone, completely. Iran is probably capable of this, or close. From Israel standpoint the logical step is to bomb Iran military into the Stone Age.…

I think the main reason Iran wants the bomb is the same reason North Korea wanted the bomb and in fact all other countries wanted the bomb: National security.

Nuclear weapons are not offensive weapons, certainly not when you're small enough so that any such attack on your part would only result in you being completely annihilated in retaliation. Nuclear weapons are an insurance policy against others deciding that you're ripe for "regime change" and/or invasion.

From what we know Israel also has the bomb and for the exact same reason.

Re: Israel may have destroyed Iranian centrifuges simply by cutting power

#133
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no indication that Iran is any less deterrable than every other nuclear power. We didn't start WWIII when Kruschev banged his shoe at the UN like a maniac, it would also be a bad idea to do it over Iran's posturing. The US killed their national hero last year and we got a measured, proportionate response rather than lighting Iraq on fire. Trying to pre-emptively "bomb Iran into the stone age" would not only b…

A 'hail of scuds' would be temporary and mild in comparison to a 'real' nuclear threat from Iran. Of course - nobody has any intention of actually dropping nukes on anyone. It's about power and leverage, and Iran's ability to project their dominance towards destabilizing and overthrowing House of Saud, and maybe disrupting/overthrowing Israel some day as well. Since House of Saud actually has nukes (they paid for Pak…

I think granting a "right of return" based on what ethnic group you happen to be a part of is bullshit and out of step with the modern world.

Definitely would improve their international stature if they stopped occupying, but they are still a state organized around an ethnic group.

Re: Israel may have destroyed Iranian centrifuges simply by cutting power

#134
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The youth unemployment rate in Iran is ~25%, overall rate is 10%. They issue their own fiat currency, and their GDP per capita is comparable to Thailand and Botswana. So yes, they can probably afford to have a bunch of people tweak knobs in a factory all day.

There is also a very deep dissatisfaction towards the government amongst people.

Imagine them hiring dozens of resentful, rebellious teens to watch the dials of their budding nuclear programme. It’s like something from Futurama

Re: Israel may have destroyed Iranian centrifuges simply by cutting power

#135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does it even mean to “not be networked” and on a Galactic spaceship? I can imagine all of those systems need to communicate within their domain somehow, so they need to be connected. You could make a point that they have “not been connected to the internet”, but then it only takes one node to become a bridge between WAN and LAN and you are Pwned. It’s even worse now because there’s a tendency in software develop…

I always took it to mean fixed purpose control signals rather than sitting on a common bus.

It takes only one buffer overflow within a fixed purpose control signal handler to convert any bus into a general purpose bus.

Re: Israel may have destroyed Iranian centrifuges simply by cutting power

#136
post #120
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> One nuke and Israel will just be gone, completely. Iran is probably capable of this, or close. Area of Hiroshima: 350.1 square miles Area of Israel: 8,019 square miles Yeah I'd say [citation needed] for that. > From Israel standpoint the logical step is to bomb Iran military into the Stone Age. This really isn't helping you, because if you're an Iranian and your government says "That country over there says their o…

Didn't the Hiroshima bomb have a much smaller effect radius than modern nuclear weapons?

In this hypothetical the bomb is constructed by Iran who has never made one before. So it prob wouldn’t match the best performance possible.

Re: Israel may have destroyed Iranian centrifuges simply by cutting power

#137
post #93
post #51

> To mark the event and send a message to its negotiating partners, technicians at Natanz began to operate a small batch of IR-6 centrifuges as well. The majority of centrifuges at Natanz are a model known as IR-1, which is much less efficient at enriching uranium than the IR-6 design. The nuclear agreement signed with Iran in 2015 (known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA) limited it to using only I…

Leverage for the next JCPOA.

Could you elaborate on what kind of leverage this gives them? Does anyone doubt they had the capability to employ more efficient centrifuges and enrich uranium beyond 20% prior to this. How does choosing to actually do those things benefit them in negotiations?

If the criminal in a hostage situation starts shooting their hostages, does that give them leverage in negotiations? I would think it just devalues their hostages and gives the police more incentive to shoot before things get worse.

Re: Israel may have destroyed Iranian centrifuges simply by cutting power

#139
post #80

Israel is fighting for its existence. Iran leadership routinely makes threats to destroy America and Israel. This often get ignored or dismissed. But like waving a gun in a cops face. Well bad things happen. One nuke will piss America off. One nuke and Israel will just be gone, completely. Iran is probably capable of this, or close. From Israel standpoint the logical step is to bomb Iran military into the Stone Age.…

> One nuke and Israel will just be gone, completely. Iran is probably capable of this, or close. Area of Hiroshima: 350.1 square miles Area of Israel: 8,019 square miles Yeah I'd say [citation needed] for that. > From Israel standpoint the logical step is to bomb Iran military into the Stone Age. This really isn't helping you, because if you're an Iranian and your government says "That country over there says their o…

Your argument would be stronger if you added up the area of the inhabited areas of Israel rather than the total area, but yea, one nuke wouldn't take out a country unless the country was just a single city like Singapore.

Re: Israel may have destroyed Iranian centrifuges simply by cutting power

#140

Say what you will, but being able to smuggle a bomb into a heavily fortified military installation is pro. I'd give a lot for a peek at that world: the planning, the logistics, the people. They probably have one of the most sophisticated spy networks in the world.

Drone to a roof at night, picked up by an insider on a cigarette break?
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