Comments on: Caught Between a Nuke and a Desert Quagmire

By: Bill Mulligan

Bill Mulligan — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 07:37:46 +0000

Oh I agree, there’s no clean way out of this. I don’t fear that Iran would attack us at home; they HAVE to know that this would potentially bring the wrath of God down on them. If we invaded iraq on just the suspicion of ill intent, what would we do to an actual antagonist?

By: Bill Myers

Bill Myers — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 06:19:04 +0000

Bill, I’d encourage you to read the Time article if you haven’t already. Some military experts, like General Anthony Zinni, believe destroying Iran’s nuclear capability would be a difficult task. Air strikes could at best set Iran’s nuclear program back a few years, and that’s assuming we could find every installation. The only permanent solution would be regime change, and that would require ground troops.

As for Iran’s ability to make trouble for our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, remember how Hizbollah stood up to the Israeli army? They didn’t do it alone. Iran’s reach extends far outside of its own borders.

They could also strike at us on our own soil. Major attacks like the planned bombings of airliners traveling from the U.K. to the U.S. require a lot of manpower and “moving parts,” and are easier to spot than, say, a suicide bomber who straps dynamite to himself and sets it off in a crowded area. I wouldn’t be surprised if Iran retaliated with smaller terrorist attacks that claim far fewer lives than the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, but spread an equal amount of fear.

Finally, we tried arming an insurgency in Afghanistan. We succeeded in helping them repel the Soviet occupation, but we ended up with Al Qaeda as a result. Pouring arms into the hands of Iranian rebels might be very risky.

I’m not saying that doing nothing is an option. I’m just saying that I don’t believe there are any solutions that will allow for a clean outcome. Unless we can somehow convince Iran to stand down voluntarily — something I don’t believe is likely — this is going to be one very messy situation.

By: Bill Mulligan

Bill Mulligan — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 07:07:03 +0000

I don’t think it will require much of our military to do what we may need to do in Iran.

Destroy the nuclear installations. Bury them. If anyone tried to dig them up, send cruise missles over.

A total air campaign. We aren’t trying to take them over.

Now they might attack our troops in Iraq in retaliation. Potentially that would be serious trouble…but maybe not. It might unite the Iraqis lijke nothing else. and since the Iraq army was able to fight iran to a stalemate for years I don’t think our troops would lose.

We could also POUR arms into Iran to support the various anti-government factions. They probably can’t win but they can cause trouble.

Wish it dodn’t come to this–Persians are great people–but a nuclear Iran has too much potential for disaster.