Who would win the war? need your help :)

Ok, so i'm hearing alot of speculation about the war with iran. dates, predictions, agendas...a bunch.

so i want to get everyones opinon who is willing to share.

Question: If america went to war with Iran this year sometime, who would win? Iran or america.

THE CATCH: you can only state who you think would win and the 2 most important reasons why.

EXAMPLE: America
1.
2.

OR
IRAN
1.
2.

Then i will organize all the data and see what we have.

(this is just a simple poll, gathering a concensus of opinons of ats members concerning this subject.)


Thanks everyone, and please stick to the format just so i can organize it all and then we can discuss it.

Thanks again for your participation!

CHERRIO!
Digitalgrl


[edit on 10/01/2004 by DigitalGrl]

America

1. An all-volunteer army. History proves that it is better to have 100 volunteers than 10,000 conscripts
2. Better technology, training and funding.

One thing that should be understood about war and conflict: it is unpredictable.

Therefore, any such speculation or hypothesizing is quite pointless.






seekerof

Surprising as it is, I agree with Seekerof. On paper, U.S./Coalition would cursh Iran, but as Seeker said, war is totally unpredictable. Iran could very well dish it out on us.

Sorry not to follow the format but define 'War' and define 'win'.


Otherwise it's an unanswerable question.

Seekerof: i get what you are saying. but im just gathering a concensus of opinon...im not trying to get a prediction. just gathering data on about how people think as of right now. if you dont want to participate you dont have to.


as for the question that was asked...which it was a good one.

By war i mean-enter into to actual combat. ground troups, and air assaults. whatever seems plausable that either country would do to win i suppose.

as for what i mean by win= i guess that is harder to define. so for sake of argument lets define win as= gaining significant power of the current authorities of the other countries government/being in the postion to make favorable demands with minimal chance of effective retaliation at this point in the war.


well i hope that clears everything up. again i thank those who have and are going to participate in this poll. and i would ask that those participating try to keep on track with the format of the poll just so it will be quicker/easier for me to sift through all the responses.

thanks a bunch!

CHERRIO!
Digitalgrl

You need to define "winning" first.

If the goal was to take over and then occupy Iran, id say any opposing force would lose, as every occupation in history has ultimately failed.

If the goal was to destroy all or parts of Iran, the USA would win 100% of every time.

Why?

In order to destroy an enemy force you need just two things in modern combat:
#1 Accurate and destructive weapons
#2 A method of delivering those weapons to appropriate targets

The USA clearly has the ability to deliver deadly ordinance to just about any target on the planet and in endless numbers for all practical purposes.

NOTE (I have said this 100 times):

The USA and coalition will not invade Iran; they will destroy its ability to wage offensive war, both nuclear and conventional. Action becomes very simple and effective when its just airplanes bombing things. And nobody is better equipped than the USAF and friends for that.

Stage one:
Massive onslaught of cruise missiles and stealth bombers do destroy communications/radar/operational/command assets

Stage two:
Send in planes to identify and destroy all SAAM sites while maintaining stealthy selective targeting of infrastructure assets. Destroy all enemy air assets.

Stage three:
Once the airspace is dominated, bomb, bomb, bomb, and bomb until all offensive military abilities are decimated.

Elapsed time: about 2-4 weeks. No boots on the ground other than maybe some select spec ops for targeting and intel purposes.

Militarily Ameirca will win but in the long run the fall out will come back to seriously hurt the US when Iran provides informatioin and technology for Nuclear weapons to sum crazy terrorists.

Initial war (army vs army) : America would win
Actual War: Iran IMO

Winner: US
Reason 1: A large advanced military that even has flying invisible missiles
Reason 2: Nukes

Winner: Nobody

Scenario US Attacks Iran:
1. U.S. Nuclear Strike on Iran
2. Iran Nuclear Strike on Israel
3. Russia and China Launch on the U.S.

Scenario Iran Attacks US
1. Iran Nuclear Strike on Israel
2. U.S. Counter Strike on Iran
3. China and Russia Launch on the U.S.

I don't know...
What, with the flying stealth boats, the super-sonic torpedos and God knows what else, Iran is looking and sounding pretty tough.
On the other hand, Iran is looking and sounding alot like it always has... an angry loudmouth with Photoshop, and a couple of store-bought "Super-Weapons".

Iran is a kitten.
With a bowel problem.

Are you so sure the Chinese and Russian Governments would actually strike the US?? I'm not so sure. The Iranian Government is extremist and I wouldn't be surprised if they used nuclear weapons.. would you quite happily sacrifice your own nation and that of most of the world though? I don't quit ethink many other Governments such as Russia, UK, China, US would actually consider using them.. it may be close but who would want to die and kill everything for the sake of it??

-I'm sure if there was a war the US would win by sheer force, technology and having a better army in general
-secondly- I think the war would grind to a halt (officially the war was over) but the war would turn to fighting an invisible yet better armed guerilla forces. In which case it will be like going to war with a blindfold on. I think public opinion of another drawn out war will force the Government to withdraw troops so overall the reisstance front will be won by Iran.

If you're talking a full-on land invasion...

I call a draw.

1.) America has amazing technology, weapons and training.
2.) They would have complete air superiority.

but...

1.) The Iranian terrain massively favors the defending forces
2.) If all else fails they would turn into an insurgency that would make the one in Iraq seem insignificant.

There would be no winner - and that's why the USA will never invade Iran in a million years. Not even with a draft. The only way it could happen would be a huge coalition of forces combing the USA and UN....and even then it would be a mess.

If you're talking the much more likely scenario of an air attack...

The US would wipe the floor with Iran

1.) Stealth aircraft and precision bombs, with superior fighter planes as well.

2.) The Iranians would only have one shot from each missile site (mobile or not) because minutes later they would be a smoking crater in the ground.

This is a good subject.

United States
1:Firepower, Technology, Air Force, Naval Ships, etc. We dont need to touch land.
2: If the U.S. will do a full-on invasion on a country, just for oil, then I think we would get CRAZY on a real ("real" is yet to be determined tho) threat.
2-B: (lol) Compare the US - Iraq invasion like this. Iraq is a doorbell ditching kid.
The U.S. is a bodybuilder. We punched the kid. Then took all his friends out. And everyone that had any opinion on it, lol.
We will do anything we have to, for the smallest of reasons, and that makes us tough, as well as crazy and stupid.

:-D

What planet are you living on? One, the US will not nuke Iran, and two, Russia and China would never commit suicide over Iran. Also, Iran doesn't yet have nukes.

Lets keep in mind that Afghanistan has mountains just like iran, and that the iraqi insurgency is in part, at least theoretically, funded, equipped, and trained by iran. Without an international backer, their insurgency might actually be less effective.

lol afghanistans has mountains like iran?. Iran in middle east has the most mountains alone and the terrain is not just flat landfeilds with deserts. Afghanistans insurgency is all joke and i dont see how it makes a country strong by just going after them. The question is can you handle tehran? 5 times as big as bahgdad and kabul with more population and resistence? excuses dont count

Irans real terrains!.

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Who would win? In my opinion, no one.

1) The US is getting spread pretty thin as it is I believe. Things arn't too great in Afganistan and even worse in Iraq, the last thing they should do is go to Iran.
2) The Iranian army is much better equipped then Iraq. Sure it's not close to what the US has, but I don't the Iranian soldiers giving up so easily.

Like what some one else said. Army vs. Army. The US would defeat them, but it's not over after that. They'd have to deal with an Iranian insurgency. That's when things get really messy for either side.

What make you think the US has any interest in occupying that 15th century sharia sewer? I know the 21st century has reached Iran yet, but US has these great things called Airplanes. The airplanes fly like birds over the mountains and they can drop bombs any spot in your country the US chooses to.

Heres another thing for you: I'd bet most Iranians, given a chance, would chose to leave Iran and move to the US.

[edit on 5-4-2006 by ElTiante]