[bill1952]

Hitting the US first would be the only way to guarantee their extinction.

It would take thousands of nukes to successfully destroy our ability to wipe out most of the world, let alone Iran.
And before you start with an argument that we would do nothing, remember that the US is the only country to ever use a nuclear weapon in open warfare.

Iran would cease to exist.

[Wyatt's Torch]

I do not think Obama would retaliate with nukes...he’s a chicken shit.

That being said, Iran may very well want us to nuke them into oblivion...they love death/martyrism.

[JasonC]

Obama isn't Truman. He's a chickenstuff pacifist.

[Question_Assumptions]

You are assuming that Obama has the will and guts to nuke Iran if they hit the United States. I don't. Where I once had some hope that he'd be a moderate along the lines of Bill Clinton, he's quickly shown himself to be more naive, stupid, and wrong than Jimmy Carter, the guy who let the radicals take over Iran, the Sandinistas take over Nicaragua, the PLO take over Lebanon, and so on without doing anything to stop it. While it would be difficult to imagine a real man sitting back and letting his country taking a nuclear hit, I think anyone foolish enough to think he can negotiate with "moderate Taliban" and who is stupid enough to kick the economy while it's down just might. And let's hope the Iranians and others don't start seeing it that way.