Iran’s threat to our forces in Iraq is an idle one at best. The recent saber-rattling by the Mullahs is simply a poor attempt to shake up the political left with a bit of brinksmanship. In the same stroke they give the left a bit of venom to spew at the their favorite targets: the Jews and the U.S.

            They say that a preemptive strike would be justified because the United States and Israel have used them in the past. In point of fact I agree with this. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.

            My issue is that despite the fact that they might be “justified” in attacking U. S. forces in Iraq or attacking Israel in order to preserve their nuclear weapon ambitions I simply don’t think they could pull it off.

            The only strength Iran has is in missile technology and that is iffy at best. Their missiles have good range and a decent payload but are not the most accurate weapons ever fielded. If Iran thinks that some missiles are going to allow them to take a chunk of Iraq or deter Israel from a course of action they are sorely mistaken.

Of course Iran does not think that this is the case. The Mullah’s military advisers know that they stand exactly zero chance of success against the U.S. in open warfare and little chance of dissuading Israeli action through use of missile attacks (if anything Israel has shown that violence directed against them will be met with greater force not less).

The real goal here is to inject a bit of political instability by appealing to the sections of western populations who are totally ignorant of military realities. These are the same folks who predicted that the U.S. would lose tens of thousands of soldier invading Iraq and who tirelessly wailed “Vietnam!” over and over again.

            Once again these folks would rush to the surrender and kowtow to Iran, believing the Iranian claim that their nuclear program is only to be used for civilian power supply (despite the IAEA’s continued assessment to the contrary). They would have us spend years in futile diplomatic talks while Iran moves it’s weapons program forward at full speed.

            This tactic has been used tirelessly by despots across the world i.e. Castro, Kim Il-Sung, and his son Kim Jung-Il. The sad fact is that some people actually buy into it. Let me help you out here folks, if Iran tried to cross the border with massed troops the only thing they would accomplish is the fertilization of the border area with the pulped flesh of Iranian soldiers. Should they lob a missile, even one, anywhere near Iraq or into Israel they would punished from the air so mercilessly that their military infrastructure would be begging for mercy in less than a month. This is a totally empty threat being used to try and borrow apologists from the western left to make the Mullahs case for them.

            Try not to be used so transparently.