Augh. It looks my dad's over-the-top wish of Iran (his country of origin and home until late high-school, mind you) getting glassed has non-zero odds of happening.
What'll happen is what happened when we had our cold war. One country will end up with a ton of nukes they won't dare use and everyone else will be more bankrupt than when they started.
If they decide to bathe each other with nuclear fire, I can only hope that the US, China, and Russia are just smart enough to stay the fuck out of it.
As much as I want to agree if that scenario starts to look likely I think someone should involved, such as one of those 3, to stop if from happening. Depending on how power the nukes in question are just one going off could have a devastating affect on the environment, much less how bad it could be if several get detonated.
War in Iran would be the bloodiest and deadliest war the world has ever seen. I would rather serve in World War One than an Iranian-American war. I would rather be crucified than serve in an Iranian-American war. I would rather be tarred and feathered than serve in an Iranian-American war. I would undergo any difficulty to keep us out of a war with Iran.
War in Iran would be the bloodiest and deadliest war the world has ever seen. I would rather serve in World War One than an Iranian-American war. I would rather be crucified than serve in an Iranian-American war. I would rather be tarred and feathered than serve in an Iranian-American war. I would undergo any difficulty to keep us out of a war with Iran.
HYPERBOLE! But honestly I rather doubt you actually want any of those things in comparison to war with Iran.
War in Iran would be the bloodiest and deadliest war the world has ever seen. I would rather serve in World War One than an Iranian-American war. I would rather be crucified than serve in an Iranian-American war. I would rather be tarred and feathered than serve in an Iranian-American war. I would undergo any difficulty to keep us out of a war with Iran.
HYPERBOLE! But honestly I rather doubt you actually want any of those things in comparison to war with Iran.
World War One is a cakewalk compared to a furious war against guerrilla religious zealots with nothing to live for and everything to die for, who would be heavily entrenched in a battlefield environment the US has now proven twice-over that it neither understands nor can claim victory in. No form of execution or humiliation can compare to the tortures that the Iranian theocracy inflicted on its own people at the time of the Islamic Revolution.
Mix in nuclear weapons and you have a potent reason to either avoid war entirely, or scorch the entire nation in one fell swoop. I would rather the US chose the former, because a conflict with Iran should not be considered an option.
While war with Iran would be quite costly compared to modern wars, it would pale in comparison with the Ostfront.
World War One is a cakewalk compared to a furious war against guerrilla religious zealots with nothing to live for and everything to die for, who would be heavily entrenched in a battlefield environment the US has now proven twice-over that it neither understands nor can claim victory in.
Let's clarify this, the reason why we are having issues is not due to any sort of lack of military prowess or skill, but rather a political decision to utilize a standing offensive war force for long term extensive nation building and peace keeping operations.
People seem to assume that Iran is a country composed of nothing but religious zealots who will suicide bomb everyone to smithereens. The government is terrible, corrupt, and full of power hungry God-bags who torment their own people, but I really doubt they are that far gone that they would risk it all. Even Ahmadinejad, while a complete asshole, is not crazy enough to actually use a nuclear weapon when he knows that everyone and their brother would pile on his country immediately. They want intimidation power, not war. The same goes for the high ups in Korea. This is merely a bargaining chip that they can use to throw their weight around.
What concerns me most is that people talk about Iran like every Iranian is crazy. There is a guy on one of my 3D sites I go to who lives in Tehran. He models cool fantasy artwork. He could be someone I work with. If we did go to war and bombed Tehran, it would not get the people who are at the source of this powerplay, but merely hurt the Iranian version of Emily.
It's strange isn't it. These countries cry and complain when we embargo them and prevent trade because it ruins their economy. They they go and enforce some self imposed Internet embargoes, ruining their economies... Thanks for the help guys!
It's strange isn't it. These countries cry and complain when we embargo them and prevent trade because it ruins their economy.
Iran is claiming that nuclear work won't stop because of this, but the EU called for and passed a declaration of oil embargo to take effect mid-2012. It's already affecting Iranian exports; I'm hoping that it'll help spur alternative energy development. The US dependence on foreign oil is already showing significant decline as of the start of 2012; hopefully, 2012 doesn't end up like the last embargo.
People seem to assume that Iran is a country composed of nothing but religious zealots who will suicide bomb everyone to smithereens. The government is terrible, corrupt, and full of power hungry God-bags who torment their own people, but I really doubt they are that far gone that they would risk it all. Even Ahmadinejad, while a complete asshole, is not crazy enough to actually use a nuclear weapon when he knows that everyone and their brother would pile on his country immediately. They want intimidation power, not war. The same goes for the high ups in Korea. This is merely a bargaining chip that they can use to throw their weight around.
What concerns me most is that people talk about Iran like every Iranian is crazy. There is a guy on one of my 3D sites I go to who lives in Tehran. He models cool fantasy artwork. He could be someone I work with. If we did go to war and bombed Tehran, it would not get the people who are at the source of this powerplay, but merely hurt the Iranian version of Emily.
The people in urban Iran are mostly cool dudes. The people in rural Iran... are the like the people of rural America; fanatically religious, dirt poor, and ignorant. Thing is, though, that during the Iran-Iraq War, the Iranian government proved their willingness to tap that population for suicidal waves, and more recently in the Iraqi occupation; a large proportion of the suicide bombers in Iraq came from Iran.
If you want to know what war with Iran would look like, look no further than the Iran-Iraq war. Iraq was a fairly modern regional power and they smashed the conventional Iranian army with little difficultly, then got ground to pieces over the course of a decade by one of the most tenacious people on the face of the planet. There is a reason they started to resort to stuff like chemical warfare.
War with Iran would be bad. Real bad. It'd probably be at least as bad as Vietnam in terms of casualty counts, and we wouldn't even have to try an extended occupation. They'll pull their rural population back into the cities, give them all AK-47s, bombs, and plastic keys to heaven, and turn it into the most brutal urban warfare since Stalingrad.
Yeah, the Iran-Iraq war was really awful. I remember reading about the "keys to heaven," where they would draft poor kids and basically send them out across mine fields and into battle as suicide squads. There are plenty of hyper-religious people who would become suicide bombers, but I just want people to understand that it is not just those people, and that there are plenty of young people in the cities of Iran who are a lot like us.
I do stand by my point that they want power more than they want violence, though. They know exactly what they are up against as a country.
War with Iran would be bad. Real bad. It'd probably be at least as bad as Vietnam in terms of casualty counts, and we wouldn't even have to try an extended occupation. They'll pull their rural population back into the cities, give them all AK-47s, bombs, and plastic keys to heaven, and turn it into the most brutal urban warfare since Stalingrad.
I hate to say it, but I think the US would learn from the past. We still have existing BCW stockpiles, and even if we complete destruction by the time of a conflict, other nations with similar interests (Russia, particularly) have incredibly nasty things sitting in buried vaults that aren't just limited to nukes. Also, in the likely event that the BCW option is refused, the US is sitting on a huge stockpile of thermobaric weapons that are equally devastating and unpleasant. These are bombs that kill by a combination of burning, and a pressure wave that liquefies personnel.
If war locked up in the cities, the Allies (along with the Middle Eastern coalition against Iran, which oddly includes both Saudi Arabia and Israel) would still likely purge those cities. We just wouldn't do it with men.
I do stand by my point that they want power more than they want violence, though. They know exactly what they are up against as a country.
They're playing a profoundly dangerous game with dire consequences for millions if they lose, though.
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Mix in nuclear weapons and you have a potent reason to either avoid war entirely, or scorch the entire nation in one fell swoop. I would rather the US chose the former, because a conflict with Iran should not be considered an option.
What concerns me most is that people talk about Iran like every Iranian is crazy. There is a guy on one of my 3D sites I go to who lives in Tehran. He models cool fantasy artwork. He could be someone I work with. If we did go to war and bombed Tehran, it would not get the people who are at the source of this powerplay, but merely hurt the Iranian version of Emily.
Balls.
If you want to know what war with Iran would look like, look no further than the Iran-Iraq war. Iraq was a fairly modern regional power and they smashed the conventional Iranian army with little difficultly, then got ground to pieces over the course of a decade by one of the most tenacious people on the face of the planet. There is a reason they started to resort to stuff like chemical warfare.
War with Iran would be bad. Real bad. It'd probably be at least as bad as Vietnam in terms of casualty counts, and we wouldn't even have to try an extended occupation. They'll pull their rural population back into the cities, give them all AK-47s, bombs, and plastic keys to heaven, and turn it into the most brutal urban warfare since Stalingrad.
I do stand by my point that they want power more than they want violence, though. They know exactly what they are up against as a country.
If war locked up in the cities, the Allies (along with the Middle Eastern coalition against Iran, which oddly includes both Saudi Arabia and Israel) would still likely purge those cities. We just wouldn't do it with men. They're playing a profoundly dangerous game with dire consequences for millions if they lose, though.