bool(true)
{"id":91675,"date":"2017-12-02T17:05:00","date_gmt":"2017-12-02T17:05:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2023-01-06T20:51:23","modified_gmt":"2023-01-06T20:51:23","slug":"debunking-latest-moonbat-conspiracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cvnextjob.com\/index.php\/2017\/12\/02\/debunking-latest-moonbat-conspiracy\/","title":{"rendered":"Debunking The Latest Moonbat Conspiracy Theory"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><h3 class=\"post-title entry-title\" itemprop=\"name\"><\/h3>\n<div class=\"post-header\"> <\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_Y7kQSOBuEJw\/RuArb7B26TI\/AAAAAAAAAF8\/KpySasG9N4o\/s1600-h\/JackDRipper.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"320\" height=\"240\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5107129736140089650\" src=\"http:\/\/cvnextjob.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/jackdripper.jpg\" class=\"wp-image-91676\" style=\"cursor: hand;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Larry Johnson&#8217;s &#8220;inside&#8221; source, with apologies to the late Sterling Hayden (photo courtesy Dave Typinski&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/home.alltel.net\/trapezium\/DSL\/DrSL.htm\">Dr. Strangelove page<\/a>).<\/em><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<div>When  the press reported last week&#8217;s inadvertent &#8220;transfer&#8221; of six Air Force  nuclear warheads from North Dakota to Louisiana, we started watching the  clock. It was only a matter of time, we figured, before the left-wing  fringe came up with a conspiracy theory to explain the &#8220;real reasons&#8221;  behind the movement. <\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div>And sure enough, we have a  winner. Just hours after the story broke, former CIA officer (and  frequent Bush Administration critic) Larry Johnson weighed in with this  theory at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tpmcafe.com\/blog\/coffeehouse\/2007\/sep\/05\/staging_nuke_for_iran\">TPMCafe<\/a>, guaranteed to titillate the Kos Kids and Moonbat Brigade. <\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div>According  to Mr. Johnson and his &#8220;sources,&#8221; the transfer of six nuclear-tipped  advanced cruise missiles (ACMs) on that B-52 was no accident. Seems that  we&#8217;re &#8220;staging&#8221; nuclear weapons for The Next War With Iran. Cue the  sinister music as he explains:<\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div><span style=\"font-size: 85%;\">Why  the hubbub over a B-52 taking off from a B-52 base in Minot, North  Dakota and subsequently landing at a B-52 base in Barksdale, Louisiana?  That\u2019s like getting excited if you see a postal worker in uniform  walking out of a post office. And how does someone watching a B-52 land  identify the cruise missiles as nukes? It just does not make sense.<\/span><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 85%;\"><\/p>\n<div>So  I called a old friend and retired B-52 pilot and asked him. What he  told me offers one compelling case of circumstantial evidence. My buddy,  let\u2019s call him Jack D. Ripper, reminded me that the only times you put  weapons on a plane is when they are on alert or if you are tasked to  move the weapons to a specific site.<\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div>Then he told me something I had not heard before.<\/div>\n<div>Barksdale  Air Force Base is being used as a jumping off point for Middle East  operations. Gee, why would we want cruise missile nukes at Barksdale Air  Force Base. Can\u2019t imagine we would need to use them in Iraq. Why would  we want to preposition nuclear weapons at a base conducting Middle East  operations?<\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div>His final point was to observe that  someone on the inside obviously leaked the info that the planes were  carrying nukes. A B-52 landing at Barksdale is a non-event. A B-52  landing with nukes. That is something else. <\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 100%;\">Sounds  reasonable, right? After all, Barksdale was the launching point for  long-distance &#8220;round-robin&#8221; B-52 missions flown during Operation Desert  Storm and the air war against Serbia. If those diabolical Bushies are  planning to hit Iran&#8211;and use nukes&#8211;why, it only makes sense to  stockpile them at Barksdale. <\/span><\/p>\n<div>Unfortunately  for Mr. Johnson and his fellow theorists, their notion has more holes  than that proverbial block of Swiss. Not only is the theory far-fetched,  it becomes downright laughable, when analyzed in the context of  military planning and current operations. <\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div>First, we must confess that Barksdale AFB <em>is<\/em> a &#8220;jumping off point&#8221; for Middle East operations. But so is Moody AFB,  Georgia; Fort Drum, New York, Virginia&#8217;s Norfolk Naval Station and any  other DoD installation that deploys personnel, equipment and other  resources to the Middle East. Barksdale&#8217;s B-52s have been deploying to  the region for years, but so have the F-15s from Langley, the F-16CJs  from Shaw, KC-135s from MacDill, and scores of other aircraft (and  crews) from other Air Force bases. Barksdale is no more of a staging  base for the Middle East than any military installation supporting the  GWOT. <\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div>Secondly, the idea of &#8220;prepositioning&#8221;  nukes in Louisiana for a strike on Iran is equally preposterous. Moving  the nuclear-tipped cruise missiles from Minot to Barksdale puts them  only 1400 miles closer to their supposed targets. On a 30-hour  round-robin mission, that&#8217;s nothing&#8211;you might save a single tanker  sortie and about 30,000 pounds of jet fuel. Besides, those  long-distance, round-trip missions are largely for demonstration  purposes. For an air campaign against Iran, the Buffs would be based  much closer, at bases in the U.K. and Spain, and Diego Garcia, the  British-controlled atoll in the Indian Ocean. <\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div>As  for the &#8220;nuclear option,&#8221; why move the ACMs from North Dakota when same  weapons are available at Barksdale? The Louisiana base is home of the  2nd Bomb Wing, the largest unit of its type in the Air Force. Manned by  active duty and reserve personnel, the 2nd Bomb Wing operates (and  maintains) the bulk of our B-52 fleet. The same weapons available for  Buffs at Minot are also available at Barksdale, presumably in even  greater quantities. <\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div>And, it&#8217;s a badly-kept  secret that the U.S. maintains nuclear weapons at locations outside the  United States. Assuming that we actually plan to attack Iran&#8211;and use  nukes in the process&#8211;our strike options are not limited to the aircraft  and weaponry at Barksdale AFB. Besides, why make a missile that&#8217;s being  phased out&#8211;the AGM-129&#8211;the centerpiece of projected strikes against  Iran? A weapon facing imminent retirement (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.designation-systems.net\/dusrm\/m-129.html\">virtually all ACMs are expected to be decommissioned by 2008<\/a>)  is more difficult to operate and maintain, making it, potentially, less  reliable in combat. Suffice it to say, we have lots of targeting  options for Iran (and other adversaries) that don&#8217;t involve a missile  heading for the bone yard, and a bomber that rolled off the Boeing  assembly line in 1962. <\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div>Finally, it&#8217;s worth  noting that a B-52 flight is a relatively inefficient way to &#8220;stage&#8221; or  &#8220;preposition&#8221; nukes. You can cram many more weapons into the cargo bay  of a C-5 or C-17, and move them with less chance of detection. We were  once involved in the removal of tactical nukes from a location outside  the CONUS and none of those weapons were transported by combat aircraft.  Military Airlift Command (the forerunner of today&#8217;s Air Mobility  Command) C-141s did the job, quickly, quietly and efficiently. <\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div>But  those considerations don&#8217;t exactly square with the latest Moonbat  conspiracy theory. We hate to disappoint the Kos crowd, but the reasons  for the Minot snafu are rooted in training, leadership and  accountability, not some neocon plot to &#8220;nuke&#8221; Tehran. <\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Larry Johnson&#8217;s &#8220;inside&#8221; source, with apologies to the late Sterling Hayden (photo courtesy Dave Typinski&#8217;s Dr. Strangelove page). When the press reported last week&#8217;s inadvertent &#8220;transfer&#8221; of six Air Force nuclear warheads from North Dakota to Louisiana, we started watching the clock. It was only a matter of time, we figured, before the left-wing fringe [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91676,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnextjob.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91675"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnextjob.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnextjob.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnextjob.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnextjob.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cvnextjob.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnextjob.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnextjob.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnextjob.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnextjob.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}