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"I think they're inviting a strike and have something else entirely up their sleeve. "
And your two cents is quite reasonable. Iranian Mahmoud Ahmadinajad belong to a mystical order within the Shiite sect, believes Allah will spare them if the skies fill with heavy stuff. And he and his Mullah masters are hoping that world opinion will suffice to overt any attacks based on the constant bad news that circulates about how high the price of oil on the world markets is going to jump and stay high if we where to take them out.
Obviously a number of outher things could be spoken off, and gone into rather great detail but to spare you and I, the bother.
One thing that has come to my attention is the fact that Iran must import 50% of it's gasoline from other countries, I believe almost all European. Probably the French and Germans.
They have a limited number of oil refineries and petro chemical plants to produce the many end product chemicals need in all areas of industry. Lubricants, say rolling oils for steel mill operations. The lists are long and diverse.
If we where to take out their refinery capacities their goos e is literally cooked. If no one where to sell them any oil fractions or petrochemicals or gas, then they got a little problem. Once their reserves of all these things where exhausted, then the game is over. The Mullahs have no more gas to ride around in their big black limos. Most Iranians are going to hate to find collies and camels for required transportation. Their airlines shut down. Their airforce and ground military no longer can operate. No use going on, I am sure you could add literally dozens of things that would now be non-available to them. If they cannot crack their oil for producing fuel oil, then their electrical power plants shut down.
So there is a lot more to why we might consider if really required some precision bombing if they do not want to come around.
They may have their often inflated aces up the sleeve, but we also have some. And we can bet our bippys, they are fully aware of how tough things can get if we wanted to make it so. And if they choose to attack any shipping in the gulf, they might as well kiss off their dream of a Caliph state coming to be. So Condi/Straw and company shall continue to add the pressures for a united UN SC vote to start sanctions in the near future.
The Russians and Chinese realizes perfectly well, if we had to bomb them, then these two countries will lose out on a lot of money in the future pertaining to sales of military hardware, joint gas/oil pipeline projects, and the continuence of Russia to supply them with their nuclear hardware and expertise.
It truly is a two edged sword and the mad man's Mullah masters must be wondering just how far things should be allowed to go.