Gee, do you think this had anything to do with Israel's confidence and ability to target Gaza? U.S. troops are on the ground there. U.S. is in this up to its neck. Linda
Portion below; whole thing here: http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=2d749a22-8d31-4c75-8e32-8c6c001b8cee
Published: Sunday, September 28 [2008]
JERUSALEM - The Yanks have landed in Israel.
For the first time in the Jewish state's 60-year history, the U.S. has established a permanent military presence here, according to Defense News.
About 120 American troops have arrived in the Negev Desert to set up an early warning radar that will track missiles launched in Iran, the authoritative U.S.-based weekly says in its current issue.
The X-band radar, which can track objects as small as a baseball at a distance of 4,700 kilometres, was transported over the past week in an air convoy of a dozen or more jumbo military aircraft from U.S. bases in Europe. The move, which was confirmed by Israeli sources on Sunday, was designed to significantly upgrade Israel's long-range radar capabilities to help answer the country's grave concerns about Iran's nuclear ambition.
The basing for the first time of U.S. forces and a high-powered U.S. radar system in Israel was interpreted in contradictory ways Sunday by the Haaretz newspaper.
While the new radar would improve Israeli anti-missile defences, its would limit Israel's ability to take "independent action against Iran, which the U.S. has made clear in recent months it opposes," the daily warned. The newspaper reasoned that it was likely to "restrain Israel, which would be wary about launching an attack that would endanger U.S. personnel."
Placing an X-band radar in Israel was first debated here several months ago and agreed to in Washington only two months ago. The high-tech gear is to be plugged into data from U.S. satellites and an Israeli-operated weapon system designed to shoot down ballistic missiles.
It is believed the advanced radar will increase Israel's warning time of a ballistic missile attack by several crucial minutes. The flight time to Israel of Iran's fastest missiles is thought to be as little as 11 minutes.
U.S. forces have been frequent visitors to Israel in recent years for joint training exercises or to operate Patriot anti-missile defence systems. But these troops have seldom stayed more than a few weeks at a time.
Israeli politicians and military leaders have been grappling for months whether to launch a pre-emptive strike against Iran's nuclear facilities. Much of the highly public debate has centred on exactly how far along Iran is in developing weapons.
Iran was "developing a command of uranium enrichment technology and galloping toward a nuclear bomb," according to remarks attributed to the Israeli cabinet last week by Brig-Gen. Yossi Baidatz, who heads the research section of military intelligence for the Israel Defence Forces.
There has also been intense discussions about whether the Israeli air force and navy could successfully carry out an attack by itself against multiple targets more than 1,200 kilometres away that are believed to be scattered and often buried deep underground.
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