Iran dares US to attack

Now, what they have may not be what they THINK they have, but I suspect that something is up.

I was intrigued by this suggestion in your post. Care to elaborate? Even rank speculation would be welcome :)

When playing poker, you don't raise a bet when all you have is a pair of twos and you know the opponet has something better than you (royal flush). Apparently the Iranian leadership doesn't understand this.

"I would advise them not to commit such a strategic error."

Probably refers to the belief (mostly correct) that US Forces are overextended and there just are no troops available for a ground invasion of Iran. I don't think that's so much a threat as it is the Iranians tipping their hand; they plan (should a ground invasion occur) to either grind us to stalemate or overwhelm us with numbers (even if it means every raghead with a pitchfork must take the field).

They'll then take to the airwaves of Al-Jazeera and CNN and embarrass the Great Satan in European capitals, or perhaps repeat the Somalia debacle and drag our dead soldiers through the streets in front of MSNBC cameras.

I don't think he's alluding to nukes at all (don't get caught up on the word "strategic"), but the concentrated PR campaign which history is showing is the best way to beat a Superpower with a militarily inferior force: let the perpetually (but irrationally) guilty, nervous, and panty-bunched back in the USA win the war for you.

Sometimes I think Nutjob Ahmadinejad is so blatantly whackjob obvious, quite on purpose, all an act, so that he thinks that most of the world won't take him too seriously.. then, on the other hand, suppose he played his Nuclear ambitions close to the vest, and didn't make such wild threats to Israel and US.. acted diplomatically, normal.. how might he be percieved then.

Sorry for my slow response. I am in full agreement about the panty bunchers. I hope you are correct about the brazen confidence of the Iranians. I have this suspicion that the success we showed the world when we went into Afghanistan and Iraq has been analyzed by military tactics experts and a stategy has been developed that will catch us on the end of a "pitchfork". What would be the worst thing to happen is nukes going off in Iraq. The insurgents from Iran have shown they are able to move high explosives into Iraq. I would not be surprised if the recent wave of high explosive hits in Israel have not come from Iran. If they can get car bombs to their targets, when will we see a nuke get to its target? Such a likelihood we must treat with great seriousness.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.