With all due respect, you sound like you've gotten your view about conducting military operations in the Arabian Gulf from Hollywood.
I speak as someone who sat many a watch in CENTCOM during the 1980's while the world's oil tankers were steaming slowly through the Gulf under US military escort.... someone who remembers the result of Libya dropping a few mines in the Suez canal...and someone who was involved in DESERT STORM planning, execution, and BDA. Up close and personal.
I have "kinda" been through the pol-mil side and the military operations side .... of Gulf war. Your statements are laughable.
But you could write a good episode of "The West Wing" and let Hollywood defeat the conniving right wing Iranian fundamentalists in a one hour episode. So hurry.
"DU". Indeed.
[With all due respect, you sound like you've gotten your view about conducting military operations in the Arabian Gulf from Hollywood.]
Your post and mine touched on political ramifications. I wasn't talking about military issues. I am saying that we are *waiting* for a provocation. Any military attack at all by the Iranians on allied shipping would suffice as more than Gulf of Tonkin quality. We don't need Pearl Harbor or 9-11 quality provocations this time around. A Gulf of Tonkin incident would be more than enough.
As for how "easy" it would be to liberate Iran militarily: it would be the liberal Hollywood people who would want to pretend now that it would be difficult to defeat Iran militarily, not the other way around.
I've also noted that, as much as many of would love to play armchair quarterbacks, those like you and me who were actually in the military might accidentally reveal a secret tactic or strategy that the other side can collect and use in their planning.
I would rather not surmise what Rumsfeld might be doing now to overthrow the Iranian regime quickly. I guess I can say that he will use his maxim: "Speed kills...the enemy."
About using nukes on Iranian civilians...no, I think we would sooner nuke Pakistan and Saudi Arabia where the average person may not like us, than nuke Tehran even if a war with Iran results in the use of nukes by the Iranian leaders. In making the consideration on who to nuke in revenge for the use of nukes against Americans, we will have to consider just how involved Al Qaeda is with the Iranian government and Hezbollah.