Israel planning a possible nuclear attack on Iran.

while i would agree with this assessment, consider this:

of our 2.6 million total troops (between active and reserve) only 150,000 are in the middle east region. they are ill equipped to face a force of 500,000 strong. true, we have the technological advantage, but being outnumbered more than 3:1 doesn't bode well regardless of the weaponry.

given ample time to assemble armies and meet on a level playing field there is no question as to who would win, but how long would it take us to deploy the equipment and personnel needed to fight them?

they could go from the western border of iran to the northern border of saudi in a couple of days, and a force that size could have the saudi oil fields captured in something like <100 hours.

i realize this has changed from iran vs israel to something completely different, but when you see that iran is losing money on its oil/gas because it's subsidized at such a low rate to it's own citizens, on top of the fact that it has no profitable export other than oil, its not inconceivable that they would go after a weaker power in an attempt to basically seize the lifeblood of the world.

what we, the US, and everybody really should hope for is a collapse or some sort of coup to overthrow the mullahs before something super serial, like the coming of manbearpig, happens.

 

The Saudi military is really not that pathetic, I know people assume that it is because they have never had to 'showcase' it or fend for themselves. The Saudis have been big spenders for far too long not to have a competent military force. They are somewhat light on man power, but they have a practical military force conducive to their needs, equipped with modern weaponry; that's especially true when it comes to their air force, which is state-of-the-art. The Saudis are not interested in building a military force that's primarily concerned with large-scale ground combat (i.e. Iran, Egypt, Syria, and other countries in the region), they're taking a more 'modern' approach to it.

Also, compared to Iran, the Saudi air force is flat out technologically superior, it's not even close. If they had to fend for themselves, the Saudis can do serious damage to Iran with their RAF, that's not even considering the fact that the Saudis would have ready access to U.S. intelligence on Iran (satellite photos and the such), and in terms of logistics would have a significant advantage, IMO.

 

when you have nukes, the boast is no longer idle.

 

I understand also that the British and American pilots consider the Saudi pilots to be their equal in terms of their traning and ability.

 

Based on what I know, they ARE trained by the Americans and the British. The Saudi AF (RSAF) is basically a clone, only on a smaller scale, of course

Heck, the bases we used in Saudi Arabia were built to our specs, and our troops stationed in Saudi boasted about it all the time; they loved it, a seamless transition.

 

both this post and tigermission1's post are duly noted, i knew they had air support but not at this level.... however, i would feel much more secure if saudi wasn't run by a royal family and the wahabbism didn't preach to kill us.

 

To give you an idea of how much the Saudis spend on their military, in 2005 they spent an estimated $25.4 billion (over $31 billion for 2006), which ranked it 9th in the world, placing it ahead of India, Pakistan, Israel, Turkey, Canada, Australia, and South Korea, and only behind the U.S., China, Russia and the major economic/military powers in western Europe. For a country at 'peace', that's a tremendous amount of dough (roughly 10% of their GDP). Not even Israel can compete with that kind of budget.

EDIT: I was able to find a somewhat comprehensive link that has more detailed info on Saudi capabilities:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_of_Saudi_Arabia

You can click around on the various branches of their military to get more specific details. It's a decent reference point.

 

Iran doesn't have nukes, nor do we know that they are planning to have nukes.

Let's take first things first. We need to find out if the program they have is for nuclear weapons or not.

 

Ahmadinejad has said many times that it is his job to prepare the world for the 12th Imam. Do not fool yourself. Iran is working toward having nukes, and if Ahmadinejad is still in power when Iran develops nukes, Iran will use those nukes.

 

The guy is crazy, but saying that he is trying to prepare the world for the 12th Imam is hardly proof that he is on the way to nukes.

Iran may be on the way, but the ramblings of a crazy man, isn't really proof. We need to do better than that.

 

No offense, FB...but if a guy on the street says he is gonna wipe you out and you will find out what special technology he has in his pocket soon enough...I can't fathom not concluding this is a serious threat to your existance.

As far as the proof...It's on him. sorry.
and it's not just Israel, and the U.S.,...the collective U.N. demands proof. It's all on him, and when he won't show the special technology in his pocket,...you gotta believe this is the wool over your eyes...In addition, we have an Iranian who posted insight of desired atomic bomb construction by Ahmadinejad...

Israel cannot do nothing for it's very own survival.

 

He may be crazy, but he's not stupid. He knows that the moment he tries to use a nuke (if he had them), Iran would become a desert parking lot for the next 1000 years.

 

I agree he should show us proof. I agree wholeheartedly. The U.S. should actually enter into discussions and dialogue with him as a way to put more pressure on him, and help him to understand that he needs to show that proof.

The UN and the entire world should put pressure on him.

He has claimed that the nuclear program isn't for weapons. There are experts who have studied it and agree. There are others that have studied it and don't agree.

Talk is cheap, and certainly talk doesn't warrant a first strike nuclear attack.

I would have thought people had learned something by the disaster in Iraq. "Saddam was such a bad guy who had used WMD's before, of course he has WMD's. He just pulled the wool over the wepon's inspector's eyes"

Well that line of thinking lead to a lot of unnecessary death, and huge disaster. I'm sorry, but before a war is started, leaders need to be a little more certain.

 

I was talking the other day to a Kurdish-American at work and he told me a great deal of frustration for muslims there is why they have continuously failed over the many years of breaking Israel...

They can't understand how a country so small, that it is less than half the size of Tennessee, surrounded by vast territories of muslim/islamic land, and being theinferior religion...yet it flourishes...

He told me the sentiment is also to blame the U.S. since we are allies,...and suggested Ahmadinejad sees himself as the answer to this for all muslims...

Now that is scary coming from someone who mingles and speaks with those in his religion...

You bring up a good point, FB, incomplete/erroneous intel is unacceptable...let's get the intel right on...but we also must learn the lesson of never underestimating the decisive power of religion in that area and how it affects behavior towards others...

 

thats what we said regarding saddam and look how that turned out.

 

maybe a little of psy-war will help Iran think twice before doing anything stupid like making WMD.

 

The irony is that Iran offered to sign a middle east nuclear non-proliferation
treaty if Israel would sign it as well. They refused and so then Iran furthered
their quest of nuclear power (weapons). As Iraq was invaded, they're probably convinced (and many people probably want it) that they are next.
If they have Nuclear weapons they feel its a deterrant from invasion as well
as a defensive against a nuclear Israel. Once again, we're getting pulled into
their nutty religious/land squabbles over our Israeli support.

I'd rather not fight their war for them and alienate even more a large-oil producing nation and create hordes more generations of terrorists.

I think its naive to believe that their purpose is energy and not weapons though. I'd rather they not have weapons, but I really think they're scared
to death of being attacked/invaded and feel its a security measure to have them.

 

And why exactly is it that you think that Israel has them and Iran is willing to give up having them so that Israel won't have them?

Last time Israel was attacked by an Islamic/Arab army - 1973.
Estimated date for completion of Israeli nuclear weapons - 1973.

You figure it out.

 

If Israel goes through with this, it will be a pyrrhic victory. Their will be intense pressure to retaliate by every Muslim country in the Middle East. I wouldn't be surprised to see the Musharraf government in Pakistan fall over something like this. And then guess who has control over nuclear weapons.

There is no doubt that Israel is in a tough spot (largely of their own making), but this is not the way out.

 

So when the Islamic radicals take over Pakistan, then what does India do?