| Skybird |
02-16-07 07:30 AM |
Quote:
Originally Posted by August
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bort
I wouldn't be quite so brash about an all out war against Iran. Of course the US will win, but Iran has a much more formidable military than Iraq did in 2003. Add that to the fact that the US military is already being stressed like stretch armstrong and any sizeable conflict with Iran could get very ugly.:huh:
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Well it's never wise to be overconfident but on the other hand the US Military is almost completely made up of highly trained and motivated combat veterans whose organization, unit tactics and equipment is both battle tested and top notch. That too should not be underestimated.
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You are not dealing with an equal enemy who plays to your defined rules. The revolutionary guards are fanatics. Religiously highly motivated fanatics of a considerably higher degree of ruthlessness and unscrupleousness than the usual army- and that should also not be underestimated. The army fears them. They compare to the SS and GeStaPo in Nazi Germany,, but have more far-leading authority and permissions and even interfere with the legislative and "interpret" it. They run their own special air force and special navy units (someone asked why the RG made a claim concerning an navy operation). I had the chance to observe some of their officers repeatedly while staying in Iran, they were from their internal secret police or bodyguards for other representitives who got interviewed, and often shadowed our team. I will not comment on their fighting capabilties, but there certainly was a very tremendous difference between the attitude by which they approached their duties, and the usual big-mouth-small-hands-guys these countries are so crowded with. They are driven by religious rage, but it is an icy-cold one, if I may use some poetry here. We usually were on high alert when having to deal with revolutionary guards. Residents in Teheran have a saying, btw., it compares the memory of revolutionary guards to that of an elephant. Say something that makes them your enemy, and they will never forget, and claim their revenge later, if given a second chance. I don't want to overrate the military efficiency of Iran, but it seems that many Americans still have not learned from the asymmetrical war in Iraq, and still practice the old habit of underestimating an enemy, and with enthusiasm so. The US society, and Europe, is far more vuölnerable to Iranian retaliation, than Iran is likely to submit to military pressure, or "collapse". In a war, the US victory is uncertain, at best, as long as victory is not defined as destruction of their program and using nuclear weapons for that. This scenario is extremely pricey, and any other scenario is infantile self-deception. Anothzer major difference to Iraq: the population of Iraq is not nationally united, but a bunch of diffrent ethnicities and beliefs thrown together in the same pot. Iranians are mainoly one people, with a very high sense of national pride. No matter if they like the mullah regime or not, if it comes to war they will stand united and determined to resist. They are as patriotic as conservative Americans use to be. I would also say that the average urban Iranian living in one of the major cities is better educated and of modest reason than mopst other people in Arab and ME-countries. That'S the difference between Arabs and Persians. Arabs talk, eternally, but Persians eventually also act. - I still tend to doubt that craving-thing, btw. But imagining it put a smile on my face. It surely would have been a coup. |
