bush & his team are going from peak to peak as they keep doing better at destroying america—from what they’ve done so far, one can only infer that they’re in the employ of foreign powers—it makes sense when one considers that america’s foreign creditors, knowing that america can’t afford to pay off its debts, are using their financial weight in order to gain relative strategic advantage over america

To John Earl (Comment #13019):

I think (hope)  you’re being ironic about those smart bombs.

As Lieutenant Colonel Timothy R. Reese noted in 2003:

“As with any weapon system, there are technical limits to precision firepower’s effectiveness. Bad weather can obscure the target area and distort the laser beams that guide weapons to their targets. Guidance systems can fail and send bombs off target, perhaps into civilian areas. Coordinating the reconnaissance, intelligence-collection, and targeting processes is extremely complex and not foolproof. Jungle, mountain, and urban terrain makes targeting fiendishly difficult, even with ground spotters. Also, simple mechanical reliability is never perfect.”

“The PGMs’ accuracy has improved by orders of magnitude since their introduction late in the Vietnam war; nevertheless, precision weapons’ real-world accuracy is never quite up to the advertised level.”

And here’s Jeffrey St.. Clair writing in 2002: “An even more widespread problem is likely to be encountered if the Navy proceeds with plans to install the Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW) on the USS Stennis aircraft carrier. The JSOW is a guidance system for the Navy’s new generation of ‘smart bombs’ and is slated to be used not only on the Super Hornet, but also on the F-16 fighter and B-52 and B-2 bombers. Christie says that the JSOW has yet to demonstrate “acceptable performance” in operational testing.”

“All of this brings back memories of the first Gulf War, when the Pentagon hailed its new technological prowess, featuring its integrated arsenal of AWACS, Stealth fighters and bombers and smart bombs. Well, it turned out that these new systems didn’t turn out to be very efficient or very smart. The stealth systems didn’t work in cold weather or heavy winds. The smart bombs hardly lived up to their advanced billing or the daily Pentagon videos of missiles dropping into Iraqi smokestacks. In fact, post-war bombing assessments showed that the smart bombs hit their targets only about 30 percent of the time.”

Have there been breakthrough technological advances in terms of improving precision in the last three years?  Evidence, please.

If the bombing campaign in Iraq is any indication of available targets, Iran has plenty of schools, hospitals, power plants, nurseries, bridges, and chicken farms to serve as targets for F-16 pilots dropping daisy cutters from outer space.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/06/world/middleeast/06mideast.html?hp&ex=1152158400&en=60b3db455b058340&ei=5094&partner=homepage

Or they can take a page from the Israeli playbook on ‘Available Targets’

http://www.operation2012.com

Just use those smart bombs. No problem.

uhhh.. not having a target… or a valid reason… has never stopped the insane war mongers hiding in the Pentagon from committing ILLEGAL aggression and invasion against literally DOZENS of nations… murdering hundreds of thousands and destroying billions of dollars’ worth of other people’s property.

Who the hell does the USA think it is? Why does the administration of this great country ASSUME because they have the guns they get to use them against anyone they wish anytime they wish? Why do we in the rest of the world put up with it?

It will probably come as a great shock for most Americans to learn that the rest of the world could get along just fine WITHOUT AMERICA… did before America was invented… and will after America is gone!

If the USA invades IRAN or any other country without cause (validated by the United Nations) I will promote a WORLD-WIDE BOYCOTT OF AMERICAN GOODS AND SERVICES. It’s about time this misguided BULLY is punched in the nose… REAL HARD!