The United States Can't Attack Iran

The United States can not and must not attack Iran, first off we are engaged in a brutal and bloody conflict with neighboring Iraq and another conflict with Iran's other neighbor Afghanistan. Attacking Iran would simply make those three countries an unstable war zone and throw the whole middle east into a state of instability and total anarchy. Islamic extremist and guerrilla military fighters from Iran would pour into Iraq and Afghanistan and hook up with the insurgents in both those countries. It could be a situation which would tie up the United States and it's allies for years or decades.

First off, Iran is much stronger then its neighbors Iraq and Afghanistan. It will take considerably more troops and supplies to attack a country of its size and stature. Iran has a much better air force, and it has one of the largest militaries in the world. It has purchased weapons and air defense systems, modern ones at that, from Russia and Iraq's air defense from the Saddam regime pales in comparison. Attacking Iran is just not a good idea, it will drive oil prices up, it will destabilize the whole region and it will be a very costly war and may be not even be winnable.

Tensions have been building over Iran's nuclear program as well the fact it may be sending in special operations forces into Iraq to destabilize the country. Iran also captured British Navy personnel for allegedly trespassing into its waters. So there have been tensions building for sometime now. A bill that would authorize Bush to use money from the Iraq war for operations in Iran was just rejected by the House of Representatives. It was an extremely close vote at 216-212, and there may be future bills to authorize the use of force in Iran.

Iran also has F-14 Tomcats delivered from the United States in 1979, before the Shah of Iran was overthrown and we were allied with them. They were the only country to ever receive F-14 Tomcats from the United States. Recently a ban that stops the Pentagon from selling F-14 parts to anyone has been implemented so that Iran will no longer be able to repair its broken F-14s. There is no clear estimate of how many of the eighty original F-14s are still operational. It is also unclear whether they would be used in combat with the United States and even if they could be effective against the F-18s we now have.

A war with Iran is probably unlikely, but it seems like the Bush administration is hell bent on Iran not gaining nuclear weapons, so that in itself may push the country into war. Either way, attacking Iran is not in the best interest of the United States or its Allies and a diplomatic situation should be put in place rather then using armed forces.

Sources:
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21752918-1702,00.html
http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/breaking/101909.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran