How long would it take a column of tanks to go from Iran to the closest large concentration US troops? Could we bring massive air power in time? Just wondering, hope for the best, plan for the worst, hope we have a plan for a general mideast war cause one might just break out.
Not long BUT any troop movement by Iran would be picked up immediately.
As I said to Texasforever, I don't know where the nearest carrier group to the Persian Gulf is. But even for the low, slow, old and ugly, but reliable and much-beloved A-10 Warthog, picking off tanks from the air is like shooting fish in a barrel. A "column of tanks" is an arrangement that saves the defender a lot of effort.
We wouldn't have to wait for them to cross the border to raise the alarm; with modern thermal imaging on manned aircraft, satellites and drones, any column of tanks would light up like a particularly gaudy Christmas tree as soon as they started idling their engines.
The oft-cited wisdom is that generals are always studying how to fight the last war -- in the Muslim Middle East, it's more like the war before the war before last. In 1991, Saddam's Republican Guard dug in for WWI-style trench warfare along the Saudi border. It did not end well for them.
If the Iranians have high hopes for a Panzer strike with their Eisenhower-era tanks, they will find an even more ignominious end. If the Raptor is operational -- I don't think it is yet, but it could be pressed early if needed -- forget about it. The first sign that the Americans are coming will be the last sound you hear on this Earth.