[Lonesome in Massachussets]

At the risk of sounding arrogant, the combination of Russian technology and Iranian training and operation is not a sure fire recipe for success.

Like Iraq, they can acquire more hardware than they can safely operate. Their strong suit is the car bomb in the market place, not complex modern warfare.

Saddam had lots of modern Russian hardware, for all the good it did him. The Iranians couldn't even beat the Iraqi military.

I'd be a lot more concerned about the ability of our military operating under ludicrously PC rules of engagement to clear the Hormuz Peninsula of Iranian anti-ship missiles.

[M. Espinola]

"At the risk of sounding arrogant, the combination of Russian technology and Iranian training and operation is not a sure fire recipe for success."

Well taken point and I agree.

In terms of Putin's Kremlin, it's a rerun of the Soviet period when one reviews 'old Soviet client states, such as Syria still being equipped with Russian weapons of all sorts.

The Iranian dilemma due to the extremely unstable nature of the jihadist régime is made far worse since Moscow is giving Tehran the ability to at least attempt to counter the inevitable military showdown, which may very well involve naval conflict in and around the geostrategic petroleum sea-lanes of the Strait of Hormuz.

In fact the Tor-M1 is an advanced anti-aircraft system that can identify up to 48 targets and fire at two targets simultaneously, at altitudes of up to 6,000 meters.

Both Iran & Syria continue infiltrating trained Islamist killers into Iraq and have murdered our troops, that alone is more then justified reasoning for a monumental pay back.

It was Iran behind the murders of 231 Marines in Lebanon.