You said -- "We on the other hand then take out all of Tehran, all of Damascus, all of North Yemen, all of the Bekaa Valley, and all of the Afghan / Pakistan border area. Iran won't exist without Tehran, Syria without Damascus, Hamas without the valley, and the taliban without the border."
We *can* (i.e., "have the ability") -- but -- we never will do that. There would be too many people in these United States that would condemn that -- including me. That sort of indiscriminate thing will never happen.
Also -- "Problem solved, and done will full and complete international and moral justification."
You've got to be kidding. If you think we'll get "international justification" for that -- you're way out on a limb there. And there would never be any moral justification for the killing of millions of innocents. That's not why the U.S. developed "smart bombs" -- so we could kill innocents. We've been working in the *other direction* to try and make things more precise and to avoid collateral damage. And you think we're going to abandon all that in one big swoop? Never happen...
Regards,
Star Traveler
Well then, play it out. Three major US cities attacked. No nuke response on our part? Then what is our stomach for US deaths - 3, 5, 10 cities? I'm pretty sure our policy is nukers get nuked.
If we get nuked, America with seethe. Say we trace the blast to a uranium from iran or some chatter tips us off. You don't think Tehran will disappear? What's the alternative - tell them to lay down arms? And we do what with their muslim country then? We sure can't occupy it. Americans won't stand for another 3-year war with boots on the ground and precision bombs and IEDs and debating ayatollahs and what not.
One of the problems with lobbing precision bombs at military and government targets when the enemy is a cultural system is that not enough people are killed to force a general surrender, a complete change of order. How many precision bombs would it have taken to force Japan to surrender?
If we get nuked, our challenge will be to change the entire islamic order once and for all by forcing them to abandon their imperialism - and doing it before another nuke goes off in America. I don't think you can do that with conventional weapons. At least not without a hellrain of conventional weapons, and then you might as well use nukes because the result will be the same.