Re- Iran
"The war games were unsuccessful at preventing the conflict from escalating."
I wonder how far things escalated. Russia jumping in to assist Iran?
I would guess that the escalation gamed is what posted earlier. That is Iran would us the 12 divisions closly positioned to the border take advantage of the 1) lack of an Iraqi army, 2) Widely dispursed coalition forces and 3) Iranian special force 'plants' in southern Iraq and attack into S. Iraq to gain control over Iraqi ports and oil facilities, effectively cutting off the supply lines to US and coalition forces. Southern Iraq was where the 1980 war raged since that is where there is a commonality in that both are Shiites and the Iranians had some common support from Iraqi Shiites. Probably to take it one further, Iranian naval forces would likely seize upon the opportunity to try to shut off the Persian Gulf oil tanker traffic and try to prevent US Naval forces from regaining control of the Gulf, denying the abilty to ramp up for a counter attack. Russia doesn't even need to play in this one.