Reply #51: Please tell me this is wrong.

[backscatter712]

The last thing this country needs is yet another war.

Don't get me wrong - we'll blow the hell out of them - we have much more firepower than the Iranians, but they'll be no pushovers - they've got SAMs, they've got Exocet and Moskit anti-ship missiles, and they have a few decent fighters. Their air force will probably be blown out of the sky pretty quickly, but the missiles will be hidden in the terrain in the same way Saddam hid his Scuds during the first Gulf War, so don't be surprised if we lose a couple ships, maybe even a carrier, to Iranian missiles.

Shipping in the Persian Gulf will grind to a halt - the Iranians can easily park missile batteries in range of the Strait of Hormuz, threaten to sink some tankers, and actually hit one as an example. Pretty soon, we'll be pining for the days when gas was only $3.00/gallon.

On top of that, there are several hundred thousand Iranian footsoldiers ready to go. They're pretty low-tech, and they're probably not well trained. They'll pour into Iraq as soon as the fighting starts, and while we'll eventually be able to stop them, we'll take a lot of casualties.

The insurgents in Iraq will probably coordinate their attacks in the same time - it'll be like the Tet Offensive.

And the worst part is that while we'll be able to score some military victories and beat Iran down, we won't be able to secure final victory. We don't have the troops or the equipment to actually invade Iran, so after the initial battle, the fight will come down to a nasty war of attrition, which we won't be able to win.

This attack is completely insane, and I hope that even Dick realizes it would be foolish.