Dick Cheney suggests Iran has restarted it's WMD program...

[FlamesAddiction]

Isn't China an important ally of Iran as well? From what I recall, they have some pretty strong economic agreements in place that could bring China into such a conflict.

Pakistan as well, although their dictator sucks hole to the U.S., they are also heavily involved with Iran.

[North East Goon]

Bush and Cheney starting WWIII, Would anyone be surprised by this at all?

[badnarik]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Thats true, however those troops are pretty tied up in the continuing occupation and pacification of Iraq. I doubt that they can spare them for a march into Iran. It would have been different if the Iraqi military and police were at a point where they could take over the defense of their own country.

The prevelant strategy would be to stand off on Iran, bomb it back to the 10th century, destroy anything taller then a story tall, destroy their water works and electrical grid and force them to rebuild.

Even though I think that the American military could pound out the Iranian Military due to the fact that America could establish control of the air very quickly, the Yanks can afford and don't have the manpower to occupy both countries.

yeah, i know iran would be bombed. i'm just saying i don't think just because troops are in iraq necessarily means they are all actually tied up performing critical missions on a daily basis. my experiences would lead me to believe otherwise, even though i have never been to iraq.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by worth

I agree. I don't think occupation of the country is feasible. Even without Iraq I'm not so sure it's feasible.

Air superiority would be easier, but certainly no cakewalk. I'm pretty sure Iran still has a large airforce and a large number of fighter aircraft that the US might have to deal with if they were going to bomb Iran with any conventional means. I guess that's up to the war planners to decide.

In terms of active combat aircraft, the Iranians have about 300, but that number is fairly optimistic in terms the reliability of those aircraft.

For example, they have 25 F14 Tomcats in their inventory, but only a 3rd of them are considered combat capable

Frankly their most advanced combat airframe is the Mig 29A, the rest is a wrecking ball mess of 70's Chinese, Russian and French cast offs.

Our of the 300 planes, roughly 75% are considered combat capable, so 225.

The combined threat of American front line combat craft in theatre combined with a couple of carrier airwings would be pretty effective against whatever Iran puts into the Air.

Where it counts though is boots on the ground, and Iran has focused on their infantry, armor and field artillary, and unlike the Iraqi troops, moral is pretty high in the Iranian military. It would be tougher fight, Iran's men are better trained then Iraq's and are willing to fight.

If the American's were going to do anything, they would do a massive fighter sweep to get the Iranians in the air, knock their planes down and then go after infastructure from a higher altitude then Iran's Russian built anti-Aircraft web.

At the same time, Iran's Navy is tiny and pretty much a frigate Navy, its not effective at projecting power beyond their shorelines. I believe they have 5 submarines, three of which haven't left dock since the late 90's.

America if tehy were going to go after Iran would be better off trying to defend the borders around Iran, and then drop the sky anvil on them.

But I doubt any of this is going to happen.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Lanny_MacDonald

Is that at all likely though? The minute they take to bombing Iran the whole Middle East explodes. Plus, the Iranians are not the Iraqis. They have much better equipment than the Iraqis did and likely could fight back against the Americans. Based on how thin they are spread out, that could be disasterous. The Americans take their eye off the ball in Iraq for a minute and they could find themselves with an uprising and rebellion that could force their departure. The people have had it with the American occupation. I don't think it won't take much to turn enemy into ally against the occupying forces in Iraq. The Americans need to be very careful where they tread IMO.

Oh I was just playing an as if scenario. I think the likelyhood of any kind of action is slim and none unless Iran gives a blatent outright reason such as detonating a test warhead.

America is in the ultimate tar baby now with Iran. The initial idea was to end up with a massive aircraft and troop carrier right in the middle of the Middle East that could threaten nations into quieting down by direct actions in minutes instead of days.

The insurgancy and its ferocity took the American's by complete surprise (Bad intelligence, worse planning) and they've spent most of their time swinging at shadows with too few successes along the way.

Now the American Military is pretty much inward facing in Iraq trying to wrap up an enemy that they thought would be much weaker and wrapped up by now, instead of having the ability to stabilize the region by acting as a threatening prescence.

The U.S.S.R. Afghanistan conflict that the American's were so proud of avoiding after the second gulf War has now become a solid reality. To be honest in my mind, the type of warfare that the Jihadists are fighting can't be won unless your willing to be far more ruthless then they are. You can't beat them through educating the masses, because they'll scare the piss out of anyone who wants to get educated. You can't beat them through airstrikes unless your willing to flame whole cities, and you can't beat them through standardized infantry tactics unless again your willing to shoot anyone that looks at you sideways.

Why is it a tarbaby? Because the U.S. is sunk in up to their elbows and its holding them there while Iran basically exports terrorists and supplies unstopped.

In a military standpoint (because its all I know), the Yanks won a tremendous victory in toppling Saddam's regime and destroying Iraq's capabilities, but they followed it up by losing the peace through bad intel, bad execution and bad planning.

[Displaced Flames fan]

Originally Posted by HotHotHeat

Is the Bush Admin making a case for a preemptive attack before they leave office?

There isn't enough time or support.

LAME DUCKS.

They're done.