"Let the ball roll..."

I find this whole thing very disturbing as well. I also think we'd have a problem getting Iran even sanctioned by the security council. Russia and China don't give a crap, even if Iran did develope a nuke and use it against Israel, they'd say "Bad Iran!" and continue trading with them. China is too focused on feeding it's growing economy, and Russia won't pass up a buck trading with them. Russia had no problem trading with Iraq when it was under sanctions. For a former communist country they sure got the grasp of capitalism fast.

I'm not too clear on what exactly Iran plans to do in retaliation if they get sanctioned. If they do shut off the tap on oil and gas, I'd be totally willing to pay extra at the pump(and probably on everything else) to keep them from going nuclear. If they resorted to terrorist actions or military ones, it'd be a perfect excuse for Israel to bomb the living crap out of them.

On the downside, if Israel does bomb their nuclear sites, they're burried so deep it would take so many sorties to reach them. Also, with the range of their aircraft, their pilots would be making one-way trips.

I think the UN security council needs to be overhauled big time. The five permanant members were of course the big winners of WWII. However, France has become irrelevant since then, and Japan and Germany would certainly have good arguements for inclusion. Also, India makes up about one fith of humanity, I think they should be included. Boot France, add Germany, India, and Japan.

I can't stand Iran, they'll probably start WW3.

DBibeau855 wrote: Funny thing is, i called that Iran was next on our hitlist like two years. I think i was torn between north korea and iran, but decided on Iran because north koreas shtick was only about saving face.

If they invade Iran or N Korea they will probably issue a draft.

Shorty, in a situation like that I doubt Israel would give a crap if I got fly over rights. They'd say they're going to fly over and probably shoot back at anyone who gave them crap. The situation would just be too grave for them to mess around with that sort of stuff.

Iran will not invade Isreal, even if they could, the Israelis would beat them back. Israel is a tough country. Look at what they deal with on a daily basis. also, they no that if Iran or any other Muslim country did suceed in taking over Isael, it would end in massive genocide. either state sanctioned or the military losing control of its troops. It would be fight or die.

No doubt they will boost their support for Iraqi insurgents, which is the worst thing I really see them doing if sanctioned. That would majorly suck for us of course, and if they could push us out they'd almost certainly invade Iraq themselves. But if we catch them sneaking stuff across the border, you better bet we'll retaliate militarily. In turn, they'll probably shoot rockets into Israel. We will not be able to stop Israel from responding. One of our concerns in invading Iraq was that Iraq would manage to use chem or bio weapons against Israel, and Israel probably would have nuked them. If there are any two countries who are pig headed enough to actually use nuclear weapons, they are Iran and Israel. Besides, if Iran had nukes, the rest of the muslim world doesn't get along too well with them. They'd all want their own too. We really can't afford a nuclearized middle-east. Lots of people would get vaporized sooner or later.

No doubt we'll see more Sunni Iraqis joining the Iraqi military. Both so they have control over aspects of Iraq, and to counter Shi'ite Persian insurgents. Iraq and Iran still have a lot of bad blood. If Iraq's military ever is able to rebuild itself, another US backed Iran-Iraq War seems totally plausable. If it comes down to military action, expect a lot of the burden to be born by other countries. We'll sell Israel bunker busters and maybe better planes, and back Iraqi troops in border conflicts or even a possible invasion.

Iran is still a wildcard. They could concievable Invade Iraq outright to "liberate" it from US occupation. With the growing distaste for the Iraq war at home, the ineffectivness of the Iraqi government to quell the insurgency, and the simmering civil war in Iraq, they would stand a decent shot of winning too.