Slipping Loose The Dogs of War - Scenarios of War With Iran

It is becoming increasingly clear that, if a blow is to fall upon Iran, it will fall soon. The United States now fields two Nuclear Carrier groups in the Persian Gulf. A 20,000+ surge of troops is in transit or deployment to Iraq, and political pressures are mounting upon the White House which have not been felt since the Lewinsky investigation. War is imminent if only for a hoped political gain.

As Iran desperately scrambles to open her nuclear facilities to international inspection in the vain hope that such transparency will save here where it failed Iraq,1 the White House and the Republican Party are beginning the process of transforming Iran from "a country" into "the enemy."2

The Bush Administration would have the United States believe that a war with Iran will resemble the opening days of operation Iraqi Freedom or perhaps Desert Storm. Black Jets appear as if by magic in the skies of Tehran and other cities, releasing precision guided bombs which streak towards their targets with surgical precision. Amid the flashes of light and rolling thunder of the bombs the air-defense system of Iran crumbles against the massive assault, paving the way for heavier bombers and air-support for special forces units. Defeated in a massive air campaign, the Iranian government abandons its nuclear ambitions and curtails its aid to fighters and insurgents in Iraq. In a matter of days the war is over, Iran's nuclear infrastructure is in ruins, and the government of Ahmadinejad is toppled. Victory in Iraq follows shortly thereafter.

Such a war is, however, a pleasant fiction. It is both tactically unlikely and, given the current political climate in Washington, strategically impossible.