How Would A US-Iran War Begin?

[Strickland]

I dont understand the underlying assumption that if Iran "does something" against Israel, then "we are off and running." Why does the US have to get involved if two other sovereign states go to war?

[AmericanPride]

The real question is how such a war will end. I think there is a major disconnect between tactics and strategy here. Even if Israel (or the US) could be reasonably well assured that it could destroy Iran's current nuclear capability through airstrikes alone, such an attack would produce the very outcome that Israel and the US ostenibly fear: a nuclear armed Iran (not to mention the political fallout from Israeli over-flight of Turkey, Iraq, or Saudi Arabia). What better justification do the Iranians need than a direct attack by their publicly stated adversaries? The Iranian program, whether they intend to produce nuclear weapons or not, is simply too far along to provide any reasonable assurance that the program could be destroyed and that Iran could be prevented or deterred from restarting it in the future. Iran has more resources at its disposal than either Iraq or Syria. That said, I don't think either Israeli, Iranian, or American officials are this short-sighted. So what's the real agenda here? This isn't the first time we've seen fear-mongering about Iran's nuclear ambitions. And it doesn't help we're in an election year, with the American electorate pushed to the right by evangelicals and tea-party reactionaries. The real losers, besides the Iranian government under sanction, are the Palestinians, who's agenda has virtually be pushed off the world stage. And the real winner here is Netanyahu, his right-wing party, and Israel's defense establishment, which has managed to isolate both the Iranians and Palestinians, and raise domestic support for Israel's security programs.