Iran has threatened to destroy U.S. military bases across the Middle East and target Israel within minutes of being attacked, Iranian media reported on Wednesday, as Revolutionary Guards extended test-firing of ballistic missiles into a third day.
Oh, please. We'd rip out Iran's heart in a fight. Iran couldn't manage more than a spasm of terrorism attempts in response to Israeli and US cyber-war against Iran's nuclear infrastructure. Outside of their usual regional haunts, the Iranians aren't that capable.
I have no idea if our leadership is willing to fight Iran to keep them from going nuclear, but we are putting the forces in the region to do the job:
The Navy has doubled the number of minesweepers assigned to the region, to eight vessels, in what military officers describe as a purely defensive move. ...
Since late spring, stealthy F-22 and older F-15C warplanes have moved into two separate bases in the Persian Gulf to bolster the combat jets already in the region and the carrier strike groups that are on constant tours of the area. Those additional attack aircraft give the United States military greater capability against coastal missile batteries that could threaten shipping, as well as the reach to strike other targets deeper inside Iran.
And the Navy, after a crash development program, has moved a converted amphibious transport and docking ship, the Ponce, into the Persian Gulf to serve as the Pentagon’s first floating staging base for military operations or humanitarian assistance.
I've mentioned the F-22 reinforcements, mine sweepers, and the Ponce development. These improve our ability to keep the Strait of Hormuz open by defensive and offensive means. These are our strong suits in a conflict with Iran.
This is most interesting to me:
While American ground troops have been withdrawn from Iraq, a force equivalent to an extra Army combat brigade has remained in Kuwait, officials said. It could have many roles to contain regional instability, but Iran is a primary concern.
But what does this mean? Does this imply that our 13,500 to 15,000 troops in Kuwait include a single combat brigade; or the equivalent of a brigade on top of a brigade in place. My thought all along was that we had two combat brigades there. One probably broken down for base security missions.
One question I have is whether our prepositioned equipment set for a heavy brigade in Kuwait is being used for one of those brigades or is it available for reinforcing the units in place? My guess is the latter since our forces leaving Iraq last year could have left equipment in Kuwait for other units to use.
We also have another brigade set for the Army in the region. The Marines should have a battalion task force (MEU) afloat plus a brigade set nearby.
And we could fly in a paratrooper brigade quickly.
If my assumptions are right, we could have in short order during a crisis 4 heavy brigades, a paratrooper brigade and a reinforced Marine brigade on the ground in Kuwait or the Persian Gulf.
With our superb Air Force and Navy in support, that's a major deterrent to Iran trying to expand a sea and air fight that they will lose to the ground where they have superiority over Iraq's still developing army.
Of course, we could just be bluffing. I worry this is just bluster that the Iranians--expert at chest thumping--won't fall for. I worry that we are, in fact, starting to learn to love the Iranian bomb.
UPDATE: Well, we have sanctions theater, it seems:
That these supposedly crippling sanctions on Iran are toothless is something that writers on both the left and the right are coming to realize. It’s just the administration and their cheerleaders who are still pretending as if they present a real threat to either the Iranian regime or its ability to keep investing in its nuclear program. U.S. policy toward Iran, is, like the sanctions exemptions granted to China, a “polite fiction” intended to kick the can down road until after November when a re-elected President Obama would then have the “flexibility” to back down from his pledges about stopping the nuclear threat.
The Obama administration may have already learned to love the Iranian bomb. But they don't want to tell us until after November. Ah, flexibility.
