[RightWhale]

You could be wrong, but things are usually as they appear to be and unfortunately you have an excellent chance of being right. Would Iran be willing to gamble their entire future on a strong military move anytime soon? If so, who are their allies?

[Billthedrill]

Nobody, and I mean nobody wants to start a conventional conflict with the United States and Great Britain right now with Saudi Arabia at stake. Iraq was once the principal suspect in a push to take over Saudi Arabia, of course, but obviously no longer, which is (I suspect, anyway) one of the real strategic reasons we intervened there. The Iranians simply do not have the military resources sufficient to effect an opposed invasion across all that open territory, and they'd be insane to try it.

But covertly, that's another story. The Iranians are allied with the Syrians in Lebanon and now Iraq (which is interesting, since they were originally nominal rivals in that 80s conflict in Lebanon). I think, especially if they could trap us into occupying Saudi land, that we'd see a massive influx of funds and arms to whatever insurgents. That's a pretty safe guess - it's what they've been doing in Iraq for the better part of a year.