Spencer, you say it like the flak was unjustified?~! Anyway,
found this article on the net. Written by an ex-USAF pilot. Its a
good read (great writing style) but not much analysis (which is
good since most analytical articles are bloody boring).
Day One - The War With Iran by Douglas Herman
Posted on Tuesday, January 10 @ 17:49:49 EST by sartre
The war began as planned. The Israeli pilots took off well before
dawn and streaked across Lebanon and northern Iraq, high above
Kirkuk. Flying US-made F-15 and F-16s, the Israelis separated over
the mountains of western Iran, the pilots gesturing a last minute
show of confidence in their mission, maintaining radio
silence.
Just before the sun rose over Tehran, moments before the Muslim
call to prayer, the missiles struck their targets. While US Air
Force AWACS planes circled overhead--listening, watching,
recording--heavy US bombers followed minutes later. Bunker-busters
and mini-nukes fell on dozens of targets while Iranian
anti-aircraft missiles sped skyward.
The ironically named Bushehr nuclear power plant crumbled to dust.
Russian technicians and foreign nationals scurried for safety. Most
did not make it.
Targets in Saghand and Yazd, all of them carefully chosen many
months before by Pentagon planners, were destroyed. The uranium
enrichment facility in Natanz; a heavy water plant and radioisotope
facility in Arak; the Ardekan Nuclear Fuel Unit; the Uranium
Conversion Facility and Nuclear Technology Center in Isfahan; were
struck simultaneously by USAF and Israeli bomber groups.
The Tehran Nuclear Research Center, the Tehran Molybdenum, Iodine
and Xenon Radioisotope Production Facility, the Tehran Jabr Ibn
Hayan Multipurpose Laboratories, the Kalaye Electric Company in the
Tehran suburbs were destroyed.
Iranian fighter jets rose in scattered groups. At least those
Iranian fighter planes that had not been destroyed on the ground by
swift and systematic air strikes from US and Israeli missiles. A
few Iranian fighters even launched missiles, downing the occasional
attacker, but American top guns quickly prevailed in the ensuing
dogfights.
The Iranian air force, like the Iranian navy, never really knew
what hit them. Like the slumbering US sailors at Pearl Harbor, the
pre-dawn, pre-emptive attack wiped out fully half the Iranian
defense forces in a matter of hours.
By mid-morning, the second and third wave of US/Israeli raiders
screamed over the secondary targets. The only problem now, the
surprising effectiveness of the Iranian missile defenses. The
element of surprise lost, US and Israeli warplanes began to fall
from the skies in considerable numbers to anti-aircraft fire.
At 7:35 AM, Tehran time, the first Iranian anti-ship missile
destroyed a Panamanian oil tanker, departing from Kuwait and bound
for Houston. Launched from an Iranian fighter plane, the Exocet
split the ship in half and set the ship ablaze in the Strait of
Hormuz. A second and third tanker followed, black smoke billowing
from the broken ships before they blew up and sank. By 8:15 AM, all
ship traffic on the Persian Gulf had ceased.
US Navy ships, ordered earlier into the relative safety of the
Indian Ocean, south of their base in Bahrain, launched counter
strikes. Waves of US fighter planes circled the burning wrecks in
the bottleneck of Hormuz but the Iranian fighters had fled.
At 9 AM, Eastern Standard Time, many hours into the war, CNN
reported a squadron of suicide Iranian fighter jets attacking the
US Navy fleet south of Bahrain. Embedded reporters aboard the
ships--sending live feeds directly to a rapt audience of Americans
just awakening--reported all of the Iranian jets destroyed, but not
before the enemy planes launched dozens of Exocet and Sunburn
anti-ship missiles. A US aircraft carrier, cruiser and two
destroyers suffered direct hits. The cruiser blew up and sank,
killing 600 men. The aircraft carrier sank an hour later.
By mid-morning, every military base in Iran was partially or wholly
destroyed. Sirens blared and fires blazed from hundreds of fires.
Explosions rocked Tehran and the electrical power failed. The Al
Jazeerah news station in Tehran took a direct hit from a satellite
bomb, leveling the entire block.
At 9:15 AM, Baghdad time, the first Iranian missile struck the
Green Zone. For the next thirty minutes a torrent of missiles
landed on GPS coordinates carefully selected by Shiite militiamen
with cell phones positioned outside the Green Zone and other
permanent US bases. Although US and Israeli bomber pilots had
destroyed 90% of the Iranian missiles, enough Shahabs remained to
fully destroy the Green Zone, the Baghdad airport, and a US Marine
base. Thousands of unsuspecting US soldiers died in the early
morning barrage. Not surprisingly, CNN and Fox withheld the great
number of casualties from American viewers.
By 9:30 AM, gas stations on the US east coast began to raise their
prices. Slowly at first and then altogether in a panic, the prices
rose. $4 a gallon, and then $5 and then $6, the prices skyrocketed.
Worried motorists, rushing from work, roared into the nearest gas
station, radios blaring the latest reports of the pre-emptive
attack on Iran. While fistfights broke out in gas stations
everywhere, the third Middle Eastern war had begun.
In Washington DC, the spin began minutes after the first missile
struck its intended target. The punitive strike--not really a war
said the harried White House spokesman--would further democracy and
peace in the Middle East. Media pundits mostly followed the party
line. By ridding Iran of weapons of mass destruction, Donald
Rumsfeld declared confidently on CNN, Iran might follow in the
footsteps of Iraq, and enjoy the hard won fruits of freedom.
The president scheduled a speech at 2 PM. Gas prices rose another
two dollars before then. China and Japan threatened to dump US
dollars. Gold rose $120 an ounce. The dollar plummeted against the
Euro.
CNN reported violent, anti-American protests in Paris, London,
Rome, Berlin and Dublin. Fast food franchises throughout Europe,
carrying American corporate logos, were firebombed.
A violent coup toppled the pro-American Pakistan president. On the
New York Stock Exchange, prices fell in a frenzy of trading--except
for the major petroleum producers. A single, Iranian Shahab missile
struck Tel Aviv, destroying an entire city block. Israel vowed
revenge, and threatened a nuclear strike on Tehran, before a
hastily called UN General Assembly in New York City eased
tensions.
An orange alert in New York City suddenly reddened to a full-scale
terror alarm when a package detonated on a Manhattan subway. Mayor
Bloomberg declared martial law. Governor Pataki ordered the New
York National Guard fully mobilized, mobilizing what few national
guardsmen remained in the state.
President Bush looked shaken at 2 PM. The scroll below the TV
screen reported Persian Gulf nations halting production of oil
until the conflict could be resolved peacefully. Venezuelan
president, Hugo Chavez, announced a freeze in oil deliveries to the
US would begin immediately. Tony Blair offered to mediate peace
negotiations, between the US and Israel and Iran, but was
resoundingly rejected.
By 6 PM, Eastern Standard Time, gas prices had stabilized at just
below $10 a gallon. A Citgo station in Texas, near Fort Sam Houston
Army base, was firebombed. No one claimed responsibility. Terrorism
was not ruled out.
At sunset, the call to prayer--in Tehran, Baghdad, Islamabad,
Ankara, Jerusalem, Jakarta, Riyadh--sounded uncannily like the
buzzing of enraged bees.
