"We couldn't have defeated Germany just by going into the Rhine. We have to tame the entire region."
The Iranian military is divided. The old Iranian Republican Guard is still loyal to the Shah. And a large number of the soldiers loyal to the mullahs are mercenaries from outside Iran. Even some of the police in Iran speak languages different than the locals they are policing.
In short, the mullahs don't trust their own people to be loyal. Why would that be?
Man, I'll be SOOOOOO glad to see global terrorism's next leg kicked out from under it. Time's a wastin'. Iran or N. Korea would be perfect, logical choices, imo, Iran being perhaps a more urgent target for us. Thank God Dubya won! :-)
I suspect they'd be a little too old to fight...
There is no such thing as a "Republican Guard" in Iran. And anyone suspected of being loyal to the Shah (or militarily competent) was executed in 1979-1980.
There is a "Revolutionary Guard" that is loyal to the Ayatollahs.