As I mentioned above, not all of the almost $200 Billion in Mr Bu$h’s latest demand for money to find his legacy is going to pay for “day-to-day” operations and “basic needs” like bullets, more armor and MRAPs. ABC News reported yesterday about a rather unusual request.

Tucked inside the White House's $196 billion emergency funding request for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is an item that has some people wondering whether the administration is preparing for military action against Iran.

The item: $88 million to modify B-2 stealth bombers so they can carry a newly developed 30,000-pound bomb called the massive ordnance penetrator, or, in military-speak, the MOP.

The MOP is the the military's largest conventional bomb, a super "bunker-buster" capable of destroying hardened targets deep underground. The one-line explanation for the request said it is in response to "an urgent operational need from theater commanders."

What urgent need? The Pentagon referred questions on this to Central Command.

ABC News called CENTCOM to ask what the "urgent operational need" is. CENTCOM spokesman Maj. Todd White said he would look into it, but, so far, no answer.[emph added]

I think we all remember Mr Bu$h’s famous line about being willing to send more troops if the commanders on the ground asked for them? And of course none of the commanders were asking for them. Until after they retired that is, at which point we learned that they have ALL asked for more troops. I don’t understand what it is about the military corporate mind that allows their troops to be killed in a war of aggression. I don’t understand how they can even look themselves in the mirror in the morning to shave when their cowardice and lack of spine has killed more than a million innocent Iraqis,

But this commentary isn’t about conscienceless generals. It’s about modifying B-2 bombers to carry 30,000 pound MOPs for – some mission or other, somewhere.

Guess where. Guess what’s gong to be the payload.

Okay. Everyone hates guessing games, so let me borrow a graphic from Tristero’s observations on the MOP to give you a hint.

ABC News opines:

There doesn't appear to be any potential targets for a bomb like that in Iraq. It could potentially be used on Taliban or al Qaeda hideouts in the caves along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, but there would be no need to use a stealth bomber there.

So where would the military use a stealth bomber armed with a 30,000-pound bomb like this? Defense analysts say the most likely target for this bomb would be Iran's flagship nuclear facility in Natanz, which is both heavily fortified and deeply buried.

They went to John Pike of Global Security for the answer:

"You'd use it on Natanz," said John Pike of GlobalSecurity.org. "And you'd use it on a stealth bomber because you want it to be a surprise. And you put in an emergency funding request because you want to bomb quickly."

I’ve discussed this with several knowledgeable people, including Jeff Huber, an occasional commenter here, who also has his own little shop of analysis and opinion.

Earlier this year we were all focusing on the perceived requirement for three carrier battle groups to carry out an effective strike on Iran. Jeff seems to feel it could be done with two groups but agrees with me that the Persian Gulf would not be the place to park any of those groups while carrying out your latest pre-emptive war of aggression. He speculated that the primary responsibility for the strike would fall upon Air Force assets instead, and he makes a point.

Any attack would probably require a concentrated killing of communications and anti-air sites first. If there really is a reactor at Natanz busily churning out material for a nuclear weapon you’d want to protect it pretty well with missiles and guns, and the radars needed to direct them. The Air Force just has better tanker assets for this sort of intensive multi-sortie campaign. Remember, the “shock and awe” softening up on Iraq went on for about two weeks before we invaded, and they had no really effective defenses.

The Navy’s contribution could primarily consist of Tomahawk missiles in this phase. Then the Air Force could do their ground strike thing, and somewhere along in there, the B-2s could take out the apparently civilianized Natanz facility with the Massive Ordnance Penetrator.

And our batshit crazy war-mongering PNACers can get their woodies on because once again they will feel invigorated, and victorious, and viciously virile. They will have penetrated another country that wasn’t a real military threat.

Someone buy them some Viagra, for heaven’s sake.