hchutch, the Iowas were accidents waiting to happen during their last recommissioning. They are sixty years old. Even laid up, they've aged badly.
Secondly, the Iowas have a maximum range of 25 miles on their main batteries, and they are none too accurate at that range. Silkworms can be located more than 25 miles inland and still cover the entire Gulf. They can use TLAM to attack from 1,500 miles away...but they can be fired from other ships as well.
It cost over a quarter of a million dollars just to light off the boilers on the Iowa and pull away from the pier. I can think of a better platform for that dollar figure.
Do not forget cell-phones, millions of them for Iranians. We can smuggle them into Iran from Iraq. America should construct many cell-phone and radio-wave transmission towers in Iraq and Western Afghan. Broadcast Persian language broadcast 24 hours a day on all channels. That will bring down the current regime. That would be a kind of sweet revenge because Khomeini relied on cutting edge communication technology of his time, cassette tapes, being smuggled into Iran.
The broadcase should emphsize preIslamic heritage of Persia, the glory of the acient past. When Iran's ancient past can be accessible without the censorship of Mullas, Islamic extremism will die in Persia. Remember that Persia was the home of Zoroasterianism and Manicheinism. There is more to Iran than just Shi'ite Islam. The same is true for all Mid-East. There is more to Mid-East than Islam. There was more than 5,000 years of preIslamic civilization before Islam. When they can come to the fore without the interference of Islam, the Mid-East and Persia will progress foreword. They can't go anywhere now because of the yoke of militant Islam which wants to blame everything on outsiders, while it even busily oppresses any influence from its ancient past.
Europe could not surge ahead until it finally recognized its legacy of ancient past of Greece and Rome.