[nuke rocketeer]

I say to Iran..."Go ahead punk...Make my day!"

[JasonC]

They can try. They are welcome. Their entire navy goes to the bottom, all shore batteries get blasted to heck, and every port and harbor along their entire coast becomes a junkyard - but the straits stay open.

[Fitzcarraldo]

Iran will not attack Israel, they might attack Saudi oil facilities.

[B Knotts]

Absurd. That would be an act of war, and they would lose. Fast.

[Gone GF]

I just love the easy talk of nukes and turning cities to glass in these threads. What stupidity.

[RightWhale]

No one will be allowed to block commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

[John Lenin]

Even the Saudis will be willing to drop bombs on them. Brilliant, just brilliant.

[SJackson]

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[familyop]

Sadly, Russia and/or China may veto any sanctions, and sanctions are not likely to come sooner than Iran's first mounted warheads. UN people and leaders of nations have intentionally delayed the process for the purpose of giving Iran time to build the weapons.

[Billthedrill]

Iran would truly be declaring war in this activity and it wouldn't just be on the United States. This would truly be madness from their point of view.

Our own response would begin as Reagan's did with the removal of all major Iranian surface units. They have nowhere to hide and their air won't last a day. Subsurface units will either be sunk in blue water or stuck in the Gulf, at the mercy of our air when they do have to surface.

At that point the major danger will be from land-based Silkworm missiles (Styx missiles to us old sailors). We have already some experience in covert operations in the area and every country in the extensive coalition would have SF operating on the mainland.

I do not think the current Iranian government has sufficient resources to secure that area as well as guard all possible lines of advance from their neighbors, every one of whom will be determined to overturn the offending government. If Ahmadinejad wants to kindle a revolution with most of the world supporting the rebels this would be the way to do it.

I don't think he'll really try it, personally. He doesn't have a bomb yet to back him up and this would precipitate extreme actions to keep him from obtaining one that are not at the moment imminent. He's playing for time until he can set off the first device. The rules change at that point, or so he is calculating. Personally I don't think they change at all in reality.