By David Isenberg In The Times U.S., October 18, 2012For all the years that the world has focused on the confrontation between Western nations and Iran, oceans of ink have been spilled over many aspects of its nuclear program...
...Yet, almost nothing has been written about one critical factor: the impact on Iranian civilians, if the U.S. and/or the Israelis were to attack Iran's nuclear facilities. That vacuum has now been filled, thanks to a recent lengthy report - The Ayatollah's Nuclear Gamble (pdf): The Human Cost of Military Strikes Against Iran's Nuclear Facilities...
... The report examined various military options against different sites but regardless - perhaps it shouldn't come as a surprise - the news was horrifyingly bad for Iraqi civilians...
...To the extent that war planners would consider "collateral damage," the euphemism for civilian casualties as a factor the news is grim. "There is no viable military option for dealing with Iran's nuclear challenge," the report concludes. "Iran has built its nuclear facilities in major urban centers making it impossible to carry out surgical strikes without killing large number of civilians." The eventual toll, however, could well be more than 10,000 dead. For example, attacks at Isfahan and Natanz would release existing stocks of fluorine and fluorine compounds which would turn into hydrofluoric acid - a highly-reactive agent that, when inhaled, would make people "drown in their lungs." Fluorine gases are more corrosive and toxic than the chlorine gas used in World War I. Once airborne, at lethal concentrations, these toxic plumes could kill virtually all life forms in their path.....
Many others and myself of the Abolition 2000 Network, have been warning for years the strike on Iran's Nuclear Facilities would be a War Crime by its effect on civilians and the environment ! This report is very welcome because it backups our claim with more data etc.
Ak Malten, Pro Peaceful Energy Use
The Myth of "Surgical Strikes" on Iran
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