re: #791 Bagua

….I don’t see Iran going kamakazi, they would want to keep their regime and military intact.

I’m not convinced they wouldn’t go kamikazi as the concept of martyrdom is central to Shi’a Islam. They used it to convince young soldiers to act as human mine clearing devices during the Iran-Iraq War. You know, emotionally rev them up with talk of love of country & religion & glory, then have them bang their fists against their chests (reference to Day of Ashura) and march off into the mine fields.

re: #825 Bagua

This could be done with minimal casualties. All with ultimatums and warnings like the Israelis do. We don’t have to punish them by destroying their refinery or embargoing petrol unless they refuse to cooperate, and even in that case, it is only necessary to damage the electricity plant used by the actual facility, not the whole country.

Followed by a decade of air oversight and the Iranians can sort out their own politics.

While many Iranians despise the current regime, every Iranian I have ever met has a very strong sense of nationalism & cultural pride. If we made one mistake where a bunch of civilians were killed—or even if we didn’t make a mistake and civilians were purposely put in harm’s way—we would have a major problem on our hands.