Pox, I certainly agree that the neo-con objective in the Middle-East was for Iraq to become a democractic champion whose success would induce change across the region. However, I don't think this is the objective of the Bush administration anymore. Iraq has been , as we know, a very difficult and bloody exercise. A reasonably stable, pro-western state is now surely the objective. The war in Iraq has made us look weak, not strong. This is because our failure to defeat (thus far) the insurgency in Iraq has made us look vulnerable: politically and militarily.
I agree with open mind closed-fist that the best effort we could make against Iran at present/in the case of future provocation would be in the form of airstrikes. We cannot afford to escalate much beyond this:
As to your assertion that the U.S. et al are ready now for a full-scale war with Iran. Do you believe that the current composition and force levels of Western troops in Iraq are enough for a ground campaign? I think it would take several weeks of reinforcement if we planned to take the battle into Iran. I noted earlier, and fully accept your point, that Iran would get a very bloody nose if it tried anything at the present. Yet any Iranian incursion would have political effects far beyond its limited military effort. It would accentuate the impression of chaos in Iraq and the region. The political fall-out in the U.S./U.K. etc would be massive. Certainly, U.S. military commanders don't seem to want their forces stretched further. See the link:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17172.htm
I was at Camp Red Cloud, Korea on 18Aug76 when some of our men were attacked and murdered by the DPRK at the JSA. This was at the tail end of the Viet Nam war and certainly the US wasn't looking forward to another conflict. Here was our reaction.
---Operation Paul Bunyan was carried out on August 21 at 7 AM, just three days after the killings. A convoy of 23 American and South Korean vehicles (‘Task Force Vierra’, named for Lieutenant Colonel Victor S. Vierra, commander of the United States Army Support Group) drove into the JSA without any warning to the North Koreans, who only had one observation post manned at the early hour. In the vehicles were two eight-man engineer teams (from the 2nd Engineer Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division) equipped with chain saws to cut down the tree. The engineer teams were accompanied by two 30-man security platoons from the Joint Security Force armed with pistols and axe handles. The 2nd Platoon would secure the northern entrance to the JSA by the “Bridge of No Return”, while the 3rd Platoon would secure the southern edge of the area.
In addition, a 64 man ROK special forces company accompanied them, armed with clubs and trained in Tae Kwon Do, supposedly without firearms. However, once they parked their trucks near the Bridge of No Return, they started throwing out the sandbags that lined the truck bottoms, and handing out M-16 rifles and M-79 grenade launchers that had been concealed below. Several of the special forces men also had Claymore mines strapped to their chests with the firing mechanism in their hands, and were shouting at the North Koreans to cross the bridge.[6] [7]
A U.S. infantry company in 20 utility helicopters and 7 Cobra attack helicopters circled behind them. Behind these helicopters B-52 bombers, escorted by U.S. F-4 fighters and ROK F-5 fighters were visible flying across the sky at high altitude. At Osan Air Base, F-111 fighters had been armed and fueled, ready to take off at short notice. The Midway aircraft carrier task force had also been moved to be stationed just off-shore. In addition, near the edges of the DMZ, many more heavily armed U.S. and ROK infantry, artillery, and armor were waiting to back up the special operations team. The bases near the DMZ were prepared for demolition in the case of a military response.
Altogether, Task Force Vierra consisted of 813 men, almost all of the men of the United States Army Support Group, of which the Joint Security Force was a part, a ROK reconnaissance company, a ROK Special Forces company which had infiltrated the river area by the bridge the night before, and members of a reinforced composite rifle company from the 9th Infantry Regiment. In addition to this force, every UNC force in the rest of South Korea was on full battle alert with all weapons loaded, ready to fire if needed.---