Iran & Israel

[Whickerman]

So imagine the US did what looks likely an launches attcks against Iran, and they in turn lived up to their threat of attacking Israel. What would the consequences be?

[Loosehead]

The US would do their utmost to stop Isreal retaliating probably by retaliating for them. This happenned when Saddam was scudding Isreal in the early 90's. The US are keen to stop what would be billed by Islam as a holy war against Isreal so they would do there utmost to keep Isreal out of it. So the US would nutralise Iran's ability to attack Isreal or anyone else for that matter.

[jedimistress]

ww3

[scotstone]

If Iran launches a conventional attack on Israel (highly unlikely) they will be defeated just like Jordan,Syria, Egypt and Lebanon in the 1960's and 70's. If they launch a nuclear attack Israel will retaliate likewise and Iran will be wiped out. For these reasons Iran will not do anything of the sort as it is just all hot air and threats just as we had from that other tyrant Saddam and look where we found him ... in a rathole.

[noxlumos]

Scotstone,Iran can't launch a nuclear attack, they do not have nuclear weapons. I tend to agree with loosehead about what would happen, in a conventional war the Israeli's are very convincing and I think Iran would find itself dealt with either by the US or by Israel.

[Zen]

Ask the 1.2 Billion Muslims throughout the world how they would feel ? Don't think they would be too happy once the Mullahs stirred things up.

[Lonnie]

I agree to a certain extent, with Loosehead and noxlumas, regarding a conventional war, but tend to think of the mindset of these people, and after the threats of the Iranian president, if they get nuclear weapons, they won't have any worries about using them, and starting another major war, Paradise calls.

[just sweaty]

usa fighting for the jews, why i hear you ask. well maybe the us goverment is runn by jews and they want ther home land pretecerd.

[Zen]

For decades Israel has violated well established precepts of international law and defied numerous United Nations resolutions in its occupation of conquered lands, in extra-judicial killings, and in its repeated acts of military aggression.

Most of the world regards Israel's policies, and especially its oppression of Palestinians, as outrageous and criminal. This international consensus is reflected, for example, in numerous UN resolutions condemning Israel, which have been approved with overwhelming majorities.

"The whole world," United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan recently said, "is demanding that Israel withdraw [from occupied Palestinian territories]. I don't think the whole world ... can be wrong." [note 1]

Only in the United States do politicians and the media still fervently support Israel and its policies. For decades the US has provided Israel with crucial military, diplomatic and financial backing, including more than $3 billion each year in aid.

[jump79]

Price of oil would rise.

[dyli795]

jump79, you might not have use for it!

[bernardo]

There would be an expansion of war and aggressive US imperialism in the Middle East; the war agaisnt Iran would be far worse than the situation in Iraq.

[qapmoc]

Basically jump97 has it correct but that is the least of the likely results, the world is at peak oil now, today!!! what that means is that demand exceeds supply and even G.W. Bush has said it on prime time tv for anyone who was listening and made the connection with the extremely serious state of the world crude oil supplies.

As of today 60% of the worlds remaining oil reserves are in the middle east which is mostly muslim countries, if they got annoyed enough to act by reducing the oil flow to the rest of the world, then everybody in what you might called ''a developed country'' can kiss their lifestyle goodbye. The worlds economic systems would go into a crash dive in a worse depression than any seen before as panic would ripple through the markets.
The USA has the biggest strategic oil reserve in the western world and it could run the US needs for crude oil for a mighty 33.4 days at todays consumption rate and the US oil reserves in the ground would last only 3.7 years without imports from abroad so don't think this is an idle threat.

[Loosehead]

Your analysis is correct qapmoc but I don't believe the western world would allow the middle east that kind of power. The US/EU would have to take control of the middle east by force if necessary in order to survive in an acceptable form.

[jump79]

Majority of the countries in OPEC are from the middle east who are also the largest oil suppliers at the moment (I think) and they already have control over the oil prices.

The price of oil peaked mainly during and after the Iraq war. This may be one of the reasons why USA is a little hesitant (along with other reasons) to take any serious action against Iran at present.

[Spartacus84]

More importantly....the price of pistachio nuts would also rocket.

[qapmoc]

You are not quite correct there jump97, the middle east and all the worlds oil producing countries are running flat out and cannot keep up with demand, in that situation they have no control over the oil price and it is set by traders on the worlds oil markets based on equal amounts of fear and greed.
Hi Loosehead, yeah but do you really believe that the ''West'' could keep its hands on the oil even if it actually occupied the countries which produce it, all it takes is a camel and a rider and 10 kilos of plastic explosive to take down a oil refinery or cut a pipeline, and there are lots of camels in the middle east.

[Loosehead]

Yes qapmoc I don't think it'd be easy but I do think the US/EU may well deem it necessary.