Iran prepares for possible attack

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran has begun publicly preparing for a possible U.S. attack, announcing efforts to bolster and mobilize recruits in citizens’ militias and making plans to engage in the type of “asymmetrical” warfare that has bogged down American troops in neighboring Iraq, officials and analysts say.

The Pentagon recently revealed that, as a matter of routine preparedness, it had upgraded its Iranian war plans.

Iranian authorities, too, say they have been getting ready for war. Newspapers have announced efforts to bulk up the country’s 7 million-strong “Basiji” militia, which was deployed in human wave attacks against Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war. Iranian generals have conducted massive war games near the Iraqi border and paraded long-range North Korean-designed Shahab missiles before television cameras.

It remains unclear how much of the recent military activity amounts to an actual mobilization and how much is a propaganda ploy. Iranian officials and analysts have said they want to highlight the potential costs of an attack to raise the stakes for U.S. officials considering such action.

“Right now it’s a psychological war,” said Nasser Hadian, a University of Tehran political science professor who recently returned from a three-year stint as a scholar at New York’s Columbia University. “If America decides to attack, the only ones who could stop it are Iranians. Pressure from other countries and inside America is important, but it won’t prevent an attack. The only thing that will prevent an attack is if America knows it will pay a heavy price.”

Iran is attempting to give the impression it is bolstering its conventional forces. Last December, Iran announced its “largest war games ever,” deploying 120,000 troops as well as tanks, helicopters and armored vehicles along its western border. More recently, Iran’s press reported that the Iranian Air Force had received orders to engage any plane that violates Iranian airspace after reports of U.S. spy planes monitoring Iran’s skies.

“It is obvious that with Iran surrounded by the United States forces and America pressing the nuclear issue, Iran wants to make a show of force,” said a Western diplomat in Tehran, speaking on condition of anonymity.