Its strictly a policy question to find out what some of you think the consequences may be should we resort to military means for removing the Mullahs.  I will post my thoughts later, however I would love to hear some of your thoughts.  
 

by whom?
the usa or the israeli's?
either way it would be the biggest sh!t storm since ww2.
we would watse our entire resourse's doing so and the chinese would waltz right through the middle east,maybe with the russkie's in tow.
marcb(not a politician and never played one on t.v.)

other scenario is iran attacking us interest's first or the israeli's first,which i don't think they are that stupid to do so ,mainly sbare rattling going lately.
iran attacks irael.....we would have 48 hours to remove all our troops to a safe distantance away from the iraq/iran border,then the israeli's would use some stuff that they say they don't have but everyone knows they have but won't admit it.
marcb(not a banjo player and never played one on t.v.)

A while ago it held more logic than an attack on Iran.  now, I don't think we can use our blunted sword for at least a year, if not two or three, even to do a little thing like a Grenada/Panama adventure.

Far cheaper to let them continue to implode, however slowly.

.

The Mullahs have Iran rotting from within.  It may take longer than some wish, but they will be overthrown. And probaly will loose their heads during the process.
    We should not go there until we have cleaned up the two situations that we are engaged in.  The possibility exists that we will not have to lift a finger against Iran then, particularly if we succeed in elevating Afganistan and Iraq to privileged status in the Middle East.

  If you think this admin isn't drawing up plans for a military invasion of Iran then you my friend have forgotten what just happened before Iraq.  
  The mullahs are moving ahead with enrichment and have indicated a willingness to strike back any nation who launches a pre-emptive strike on the power plants.  
  If the mullahs do not stop this program and do not yield to international pressure, guess what??  Either the US or Israel will strike!!  
  And the strike cannot merely be on the reactors this time.  The Israeli firsters of this admin will at any cost take it all the way
to regime change in Iran!!

...  EV, I hope you are wrong.  I know people are talking about it.  Israel might take out the reactors because it is some sort of indirect security threat.  I think Israel makes a big mistake if they do it and we should NOT get involved.  

The major lesson we should take away from Iraq is that "regime change" is a lot more complex than a military victory.  What we call "government" is a complex set of relationships that define how a country works and a collective mindset of the poeple in the country about how it should work.  If there is some small group that is oppressing everyone else in a country -- we may be able to effect a change by military means.  Iran is less a military dictatorship than Iraq.  We will start up a shitstorm if we go in there.  Wait for it to change by itself:  it is not meeting the needs of it's people and the people will make their own changes.

It is such a good sign that such a complex question is posed, and we are getting intelligent postings ... keeping the fingers crossed!!!  Here are my thoughts ...

1-This war, if ever launched, will cost over 1 Trillion dollars!  Iran is several times larger than Iraq, mountains, flat lands, not much exposed desert, and a population three times the size of Iraq.  With the economy the way it is, congress will take a stand.  Vietnam had a population of only 20 million, truly a poor nation; Iran will make Vietnam or Iraq, look like a cakewalk

So even the most irrational people in this bunch, will not attempt to do a full invasion

2- straightforward bombing, will bring about retaliations in many ways.  I believe the Pan Am flight crash, was a response to our shooting down an Iranian civilian airliner, and then letting the battleship commander responsible for the tragedy not to even get a slap on the wrist

The intelligence community, I am sure will advice against such a move.  But, to keep conflicts and inflamed feelings going, I wouldn’t discount it.

3-  Iran has developed a vast and burgeoning economic links with Germany, France, and Italy, along with China, Japan, and Russia.  In this war, our coalition of nutcases will be two other great armies the world has ever known:

Marshall Islands and Micronesia

Israel will not be part of this, as it will anger 1.4 Billion muslims, and 57 countries with overwhelming Islamic population.  For the same reason, Israel could not participate in either Iraq I or Iraq II war.

So, unless a truly insane administration takes over our government, not much will be happening here. Recent declarations from the white house have been relatively subdued.

Well, this is it for now! If we are all still around next year, let’s revisit this!

excellent post,lots of good points.
marcb(not a wrestler and never played one on t.v.)