The New York Sun newspaper yesterday published a commentary by neoconservative writer Daniel Pipes, who said that, since the United States probably won't attack Iran, it is up to Israel to destroy the regime that has promised its extinction. Pipes pointed to a study undertaken in the journal “International Security,” which two authors, Whitney Raas and Austin Long, conducted to ascertain the likelihood of success in a potential strike on Iran's nuclear facilities. Raas and Long find that the relentless modernization of Israel's air force gives it “the capability to destroy even well-hardened targets in Iran with some degree of confidence.” Comparing an Iranian operation to Israel's 1981 attack on Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor, which was a complete success, they find that this one “would appear to be no more risky” than the earlier one.
