"How is this going to end? No more talking as the IRGC have proven to be liars and cheats. All I know is this - I am grad I don't have to make the choice on what to do about Pickaxe. That is way above my paygrade, and I am glad it is."
Yes, there really is a mountain in Iran called "Pickaxe". When I first heard that name, I thought it was either a misprint or a joke. Why? "Pickaxe" sounds like the name of mountain in our old west, which was named by an old prospector. But it is not. It is a real name for a real mountain in Iran. And right now, this real mountain with a real name, could spell trouble for us and for Israel.
One of the things we lose sight of when thinking about Iran, is just how big this place is. Like bigger than Texas and California put together. So what? Here is the what - with a country that big, and that nefarious, there are PLENTY places to hide things you should not have. And Pickaxe Mountain, due to its heavy granite composition, was a perfect place for the IRGC to hollow out and put in a deep, deep underground storage and nuclear facility.
The Iranians have done their homework. They know just how deep they needed to go to escape the power of our GBU-57 A/B MOP bomb. This monster bomb, which can only be carried by a B-2 bomber, can be dropped on a hardened target and penetrate (then explode) down to 200 feet. This what was used on Iran's Fordow facility during Midnight Hammer. The bunker busters dropped that night, were just heavy enough to get through to the bad stuff in Fordow and destroy it.
Okay - if that be the case, why not try those bunker busters again on Pickaxe? Because Pickaxe is deeper and better contained in granite. Our current bunker busters would just make noise, with no real damage. And now we know the real problem. The real choice - and it is not a good choice.
We also have something in our hip pocket which has never been used before. It is called an Earth Penetrating Weapon (EPW). It is a nuke. It is the bad ass bigger brother of the non-nuclear bombs used at Fordow. If we use this weapon, it will be the first time since WWII that an atomic or nuclear bomb has been used in anger. It will be a game changer, in that warfare will never be the same again. We will have crossed the Rubicon should we use this weapon.
Wait - we must have other choices. We do. First off, we can do nothing and continue to attrit the Iranians by our nightly bombing. That may or may not work. Or - we can send in our ground pounders for some boots on the ground action. That could end up being bloody and messy, with no guarantee of success. So that is it. Our choices are do keep on doing what we are doing, start a ground war, or nuke the mountain.
How is this going to end? No more talking as the IRGC have proven to be liars and cheats. All I know is this - I am grad I don't have to make the choice on what to do about Pickaxe. That is way above my paygrade, and I am glad it is.
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