General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: For those of you who didn't live through the invasion of Iraq, here is what is about to happen [View all]DFW
(54,378 posts)Republicans are essentially cowards. They do not like to start fights with nations they know will shoot back.
Reagan attacked the Caribbean island of Grenada. That was about as risky as attacking Nantucket.
Bush I attacked Panama
Bush II attacked Iraq, but only because he believed Rumsfeld, who promised a cakewalk, and predicted "maybe six days, maybe six weeks, certainly not six months." Oops. Miscalculation combined with wishful thinking, not a change in strategy.
Iran won't "win" an invasion per se, but neither would we. We would find exactly zero allies beyond some Israeli moral support. There would be more Americans coming home in body bags before election day than there were during the whole Iraq adventure. Plus--there is a huge segment of Iranians, mostly young generation Iranians, that despise the mullahs, their regime, and their restrictions on social life. About the only thing that could silence a vibrant opposition would be a common enemy from outside.
What Nazi Luftwaffe boss Hermann Göring remarked about how Hitler got Germany to support war is no less valid now than it was then, and it applies equally to us and Iran:
Of course the people dont want war. But after all, its the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and its always a simple matter to drag the people along whether its a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger.
All we have to do is attack Iran, and we provide the mullahs with their pretext to silence all opposition. Republicans have been telling us since McCarthy about how we are being attacked by "kommanists."
Iran is armed to the teeth with a well-trained, well-equipped, motivated military, just like North Korea. We can bomb them into the Stone Age, but there will still be enough of them left to put a few dozen thousand of our people in body bags by November. And THEIR soldiers are not religious like Joel Osteen's congregations that believes Jesus will make them rich someday. Their soldiers really DO believe that dying in battle will send them to the garden of Allah to cavort with their 72 virgins.