Ken Timmerman has this stunning NewsMax report from yesterday’s American Enterprise Institute AEI seminar on Iran and US policy. Iranian dissident voices are suggesting they would welcome a major air strike that would decapitate the conservative Islamic republic leadership that could rally support for a long overdue pro- American secular republic.

This makes the appeasement talk of major Democratic figures in the upcoming Presidential campaign look totally out of synch with reality.

Witness these comments from the Timmerman NewsMax.com article:

Emissaries from inside Iran have been meeting with Iranian exiles in Europe, the United States, and elsewhere in recent weeks to deliver this provocative message, which they claim comes from pro-U.S. dissidents at the upper-most levels of the regime.

“U.S. airstrikes must be powerful and sustained enough to break the myth of the regime’s absolute power and reveal the weakness of the leadership,” a former official who traveled outside of Iran recently said.

The United States should target the office of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as well as the headquarters of the Revolutionary Guards Corp, the offices of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and that of his predecessor and rival, Mullah Hashemi-Rafsanjani, Iranian sources say.

The goal should be to carry out sustained airstrikes over a 48-72 hour period that would “decapitate” the regime.

“The conventional wisdom is that limited strikes will allow the regime to rally the people around the flag,” says Mohebat Ahdiyyih, an Iran media analyst at the office of the director of National Intelligence.

“However, if the U.S. launches a major strike that goes after the leadership in Iran, that’s different,” he told Newsmax. “Most Iranians hate the regime. People would be very happy to see a major strike that took out the leadership.”

Today, Israeli Army Radio quoted US sources indicating that this might be a reality. Note this:

Timmerman notes that we have the military capability present in the Gulf to pull this off:

On Monday, the USS Ronald Reagan and its carrier strike group steamed out of San Diego for a six month tour of the Persian Gulf.

The Reagan will join the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group, which entered the Gulf late last month.

The United States frequently has had two carrier strike groups in the region over the past two years, so the arrival of the Reagan is not a reinforcement.

Together, the two carriers can launch 144 strike aircraft and hundreds of cruise missiles against ground targets inside Iran, while ship-board helicopters, U.S. Marines, and naval artillery can destroy Iranian oil platforms and cripple the Iranian navy.

In an email exchange with Timmerman, today, he noted why this limited powerful air strike against the Islamic Republic leadership has become an unfortunate necessity:

Former Iranian President Kahtami is not the real deal. Let’s not forget that he had 8 years to deliver on promises of moderation and reform, and all he did was build Shahab missiles, allow the nuclear weapons program to proceed in secret, and identify dissidents all the better to arrest them, throw them in jail, torture them, and intimidate them from repeating their sins.
As you probably recall, I have vigorously opposed U.S. air strikes on Iran for many years, arguing instead that the U.S. Should back pro-democracy forces inside Iran.

But as Iran now has an estimated 700-800 Shahab-3 missiles, most of them pointed at Israel, and is on the verge of a nuclear weapons capability, the State Department has frittered away whatever opportunity we may have had.

The clock has run out, folks. And the time for the B-2 bombers has arrived.