Unless of course the timetable is a bit ahead of your estimate and Iran has the Nukes they need. The goal may be to get the US to mass its troops for an Iranian nuclear first strike. Who then could guard the barn?
"Unless of course the timetable is a bit ahead of your estimate and Iran has the Nukes they need. The goal may be to get the US to mass its troops for an Iranian nuclear first strike. Who then could guard the barn?"
I see your logic, but remember, I see the Iranians as mere pawns of the Russians. Not that the strategy you mention couldn't theoretically work for the Russians as well.
However, I believe the Russians do not want a nuclear exchange between Iran and their enemies. I believe they are willing to risk it---and in a very broad sense, even face a small risk of a nuclear attack on Russia. (A person who has done a lot of study on the system of shelters the Russians have for nuclear weapons and Russian nuclear weapon technology since the breakup of the Soviet Union is JR Nyquist, in his book Origins of the Fourth World War. I don't agree with his conclusion that the Russians are planning a nuclear war, but his information has some relevance.)
I do not believe Russia wants either of these things do happen (use of Iranian nukes or a nuclear attack on Russia). I believe the Russians are playing the Iranian card now to distract America.
Nonetheless, I think your thought is worthwhile. Such a possibility needs to be considered from now on. I imagine our concentration of forces before the Iraq war would have been vulnerable to a nuclear strike.
Of course, if I am right and the Russians are behind it---simply bringing an awareness of this to our government and starting to prove it would change the entire game, wouldn't it? The possibility of the Iranians taking out a large part of the U. S. Army with a few nuclear weapons doesn't sound so good if the US figures out the Russians are behind it.
And really, isn't Russian culpability in the Iranian nuclear capability already established to a reasonable extent? They have been building nuclear reactors and providing the Iranians with missile technology since 1997 (Iran's Nuclear Option, Al J. Venter, Casemate, 2005)