Against a conventional military, the US would destroy the Iranian military, much like we did in the first Gulf War, with a several planes shot down,
some tanks destroyed, and a few ships damaged. Our army would, however, be very hard pressed to engage them.
Stealth bombers would knock out communications, major sites, some SAM sites, F-22s would dominate the air, wild weasels and the new EF-18s would deal
with other SAM and AAA and radar sites, then A-10s could decimate the tanks, etc. Don't think this would be done with impunity, though. We lost
quite a few aircraft in the gulf war.
www.rjlee.org...
But then we are stuck there. We have very little man power to deal with the cities, and Iran would probably be like Iraq if we entered the cities on
foot - if not multiples worse. Keep in mind Iran has a much more extreme-religious-oriented Government and propaganda machine, whereas Saddam's was
not so much, at least to the extent of many of his neighbors. I'd be willing to bet that the Iranians would fight much harder against the Americans,
and many have probably been itching to do so. Not to mention how Iran's neighbors would react, and how badly an oil Embargo would hurt.
I have no doubts we could decimate Iran's conventional military, but that is all. Guerilla warfare and chaos might overwhelm the overstretched army
and marine corps that entered Tehran, and there's no telling how badly that would de-stabalize the Middle East. Israel would most likely want to
enter the fray after Syria and Hezbollah did, as well as almost every terrorist element in that region. God knows how many terrorists our "allies"
Saudi Arabia and Pakistan would produce after such a "crusade" occured.