I think Iran is a very different sort of target than either iraq or afgh.
1. Iran is believed to have had a couple of nuked (cobbled together/bot whatever) for quite some time now. I have been reading stuff to this effect since the mid-90's. Presumably the failure of controls on Soviet nuke assets facilitated this.
2. I think the student/activist protests in Iran, while certainly from heartfelt feeling by the participants, must be at least partially funded by the US, probably in part at least due to #1 and #3.
3. Taking out a regime like Iran, a major contributor to world oil markets and a country with a real ballistic missile program, would have potentially tremendous counsequences for world oil mkt and economy.
3. Taking out a regime like Iran, a major contributor to world oil markets and a country with a real ballistic missile program, would have potentially tremendous counsequences for world oil mkt and economy.
All three points taken and agreed. However, I think that Iran is a bigger threat overall than any other ME country. It will have an effect on the world oil market, but that just be a price that has to be paid to neutralize the ME situation.
You can be sure the CIA is working overtime in Iran these days.