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This is a really dumb take.
The US destroyed the Iranian navy... Of course they did. The US is thousands of times more powerful than the Iranian government ever was, and it would be a total embarrassment if the US wasn't able to do that in a matter of hours.
The threat was never Iran's government, the real threat was that Iran's government would *collapse*. Because once they collapse, there's no one left who can call for peace, and it's just chaotic loose knit bands of militants fighting to the death, with (importantly) long range missiles that can hit anything trying to cross the strait of Hormuz - a very very VERY important trade route.
So the only way to secure global trade and 20% of the world's oil supply is a ground invasion. You can't bomb missiles, they're hidden in the mountains where they're impossible to see from the air. The only way to clear the country of missiles is with a ground invasion, and US invading Iran would be like China invading Appalachia. Same geography, same friendly locals.
The Japanese considered an invasion of the US in WW2, and one Japanese general famously quipped "There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass".
This is a loser's war, plain and simple. There's no winning move here. But none of it has anything to do with whether or not the US can topple the Iranian government.
The US destroyed the Iranian navy... Of course they did. The US is thousands of times more powerful than the Iranian government ever was, and it would be a total embarrassment if the US wasn't able to do that in a matter of hours.
The threat was never Iran's government, the real threat was that Iran's government would *collapse*. Because once they collapse, there's no one left who can call for peace, and it's just chaotic loose knit bands of militants fighting to the death, with (importantly) long range missiles that can hit anything trying to cross the strait of Hormuz - a very very VERY important trade route.
So the only way to secure global trade and 20% of the world's oil supply is a ground invasion. You can't bomb missiles, they're hidden in the mountains where they're impossible to see from the air. The only way to clear the country of missiles is with a ground invasion, and US invading Iran would be like China invading Appalachia. Same geography, same friendly locals.
The Japanese considered an invasion of the US in WW2, and one Japanese general famously quipped "There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass".
This is a loser's war, plain and simple. There's no winning move here. But none of it has anything to do with whether or not the US can topple the Iranian government.
When we invaded Iraq the fourth-largest army in the world was crushed in a matter of days. It was never about if we could do the same to Iran, it's about what comes afterwards being worse.
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Iraq is a small flat desert. Iran is a big mountainous shithole.
Flying over and bombing everything works pretty well in deserts, in mountains it's a lot more difficult.
Flying over and bombing everything works pretty well in deserts, in mountains it's a lot more difficult.
@Hoss @cjd @Bleukitty The problem with that logic is that if Iraq was the forth largest army in the world, they would have in active service 5% of their population.
Iraq in 1991 was an weak nation that did the same thing US did, attack an weak nation that had no way to defend itself against that military mighty.
People forget this, but Iraq was fighting a hard war against Iran for almost 10 years, before they got raped by the US and the "Biggest Coalition since WW2", an USA that was training and ready to fight the Soviets, (which would still have advanced them to Paris, had war broken out)
Iraq in 1991 was an weak nation that did the same thing US did, attack an weak nation that had no way to defend itself against that military mighty.
People forget this, but Iraq was fighting a hard war against Iran for almost 10 years, before they got raped by the US and the "Biggest Coalition since WW2", an USA that was training and ready to fight the Soviets, (which would still have advanced them to Paris, had war broken out)