Is the U.S. Preparing to Bomb Iran?

By GottaLaff

(click to enlarge; one of 3 pages, the rest are here)

Um, yikes?

The Pentagon is always making plans, but based on a little-noticed funding request recently sent to Congress, the answer to that question [see blog title] appears to be yes.

First, some background: Back in October 2007 [...] the Pentagon cited an "urgent operational need" for the new weapon.

Now the Pentagon is shifting spending from other programs to fast forward the development and procurement of the Massive Ordnance Penetrator. The Pentagon comptroller sent a request to shift the funds to the House and Senate Appropriations and Armed Services Committees over the summer.[...]

Why now? The notification says simply, "The Department has an Urgent Operational Need (UON) for the capability to strike hard and deeply buried targets in high threat environments. The MOP is the weapon of choice to meet the requirements of the UON." It further states that the request is endorsed by Pacific Command (which has responsibility over North Korea) and Central Command (which has responsibility over Iran).

The request was quietly approved. On Friday, McDonnell Douglas was awarded a $51.9 million contract to provide "Massive Penetrator Ordnance Integration" on B-2 aircraft.

This is not the kind of weapon that would be particularly useful in Iraq or Afghanistan, but it is ideally suited to hit deeply buried nuclear facilities such as Natanz or Qom in Iran.

So how do we take this? As....Just a good headline for ABC? As... alarmist? Wait and see? Or with genuine concern?