Quote:
Originally Posted by peter12
If the Americans can locate Iranian nuclear facilities, they will take it out from the air. The Israelis did exactly this to the Iraqis in the 1980s and destroyed their nuclear program. The Americans can't occupy anybody right now, but their capabilities are far from exhausted. The Iranians may be saber-rattling, but it's just bluffing. No one can go toe-to-toe with the Americans in any kind of shooting war. If Ahmanidenjad (sp??) really wants to play with the nuclear powers, he better be prepared to go all of the way. I don't think the Americans would prove hesitant to use their own weapons if they felt severely threatened.
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I love how neither of us can confidently spell Ahmadinejad. I STILL can't!
I guess on the merits we'll have to agree to disagree to some extent. I think that the U.S.'s military capabilities are somewhat exaggerated. Dropping a few bombs on a few buildings isn't going to end a nuclear program, especially if the Iranians are smart enough to use the landscape to their advantage. In a "shooting war"--by which I take it you mean a war involving both land and air aspects, then as with Iraq, everything depends on how you define your victory conditions. Could they invade? Sure. Could they prevent a large-scale insurgency that would make the invasion costly in the long run? They couldn't do it with a smaller and weaker country in Iraq--why would we suppose it to be possible in Iran? Not to mention the fact that Iran's military literally dwarfs that of pre-invasion Iraq, both in terms of size and equipment.
One of the consequences of the Iraq invasion is that we have to live with a more powerful and emboldened Iran. I for one think that's pretty scary.