But what about the effects of an Iranian nuke tethered to the bottom in the Straights of Hormuz? Even a crude one will decimate a carrier battle group if it catches it in the wrong place, conducting flight operations or not.
The actual best scenario is for Iran to attempt to attack one of our ships, because we will just light that country up like a candle.
I wouldn't use the phrase "best scenario" for that eventuality, but clearly I agree with your description of our response. From my point of view the best scenario is for the Iranian people to rise up and depose Ahmanutjob and restore sanity to that benighted country before anything more drastic happens.
Again, that would be way too risky for Iran. How would you control such a device? Remote control? Nope, too many radio and sonar emissions. They would always run the risk of blowing up the wrong ship, or detonating the thing on its own by accident.
Then, there is the larger reality of the fact that any nuclear explosion means Iran as a country, becomes a glowing crater within 20 minutes. Iran wont do anything that America can use to justify us obliterating them.
Nor would Russia or China allow Iran to do anything to risk the free flow of oil, so it just aint going to happen. What Iran wants is for their to be some sort of terrorist action that cant be tied back to them, but the problem is that Bush and Cheney's public statements were designed to make sure that Iran understands that we would LOVE to light them up, and are just looking for a reason.