Iran is one of the older civilisations on the planet , somewhat more up together than other nations.
IF you look at the world map Israel doesn't have a bats hell in chance of taking out Iran even if it did fire a dozen nukes.....geographically they are like a 1000 miles apart and Iran is huge !
70 million $ 420 billion economy ( 7 million angry young men with kalashnikovs and another 7 million beards if needs be)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran
7 million $230 billion economy ( 150,000 semi pro army + 400k reservists )
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel
There is also some battle experience due to recentish Iran Iraq war. September 1980 to August 1988, making it the longest conventional war of the 20th century. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Iraq_War, This was a WW2 level of conflict and combat. Poorer tactics perhaps but more modern weapons. No doubt lessons learned.
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In more detail
Morale :
Note in the US Gulf war the Iraqi army didn't want to fight, modern weapons make duck shooting tanks possible from the air, but outing ground forces that want to fight is another matter. Vietnam & Korea spring to mind. A military and political loss for the US, even the soviets failed to quell the Taliban. Iranians are proud people.....it wont take much to get them to lob anything at the Jews. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Iranian_soldier.jpg Over 100,000 Iranian child soldiers where killed in the Iran Iraq war and perhaps a million soldiers killed and wounded.
Battle zone :
In a skirmish near Israeli waters / territory the Israeli's would no doubt win with some ease. Israel lacks the strategic reach to impact Iran via invasion. Whatever military superiority it did have would be whittled to almost zero by the time they landed on |Iranian beeches. Iran has oil, so would be able to sustain war unaided for a considerable length of time. Israel does posses potent military force, but unaided and up against substantial opposition it is insufficient to dominate.
Naval Warfare :
Japan mostly lost the war in the pacific due to shortage of oil, bad luck and some truly dumbass tactics, so Americas economic and military advantage prevailed despite some efforts going towards the European theatre, a dozen bombs hitting US carriers and missing Japanese ones would of made it a much closer fight ....naval warfare is like that.....Iran has plenty of oil , think fighting reserves
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Sadly Israel is political football , and overt American support for decades has done much to unhinge relationships between the Muslim world and western democracies. Two super cultures numbering a billion each THAT COULD AND SHOULD BE COOPERATIING instead of bitching over oil and a few 100 square miles of land
....but the Israeli and American hawks like nothing more than to stir up their Muslim counterparts......1984...the eternal war ?
Well there you have it, you as the taxpayer regardless if you worship on Sunday or pray to Mecca pay for this crap in blood & dollars.
" Why do they hate us so much ? " ...truth is they dont really care ' that much ' , the Muslim / Arab world is mostly busy doing its Muslim / Arab thing just like its been doing for 1000s of years.
As Americans and Israelis have discovered , killing injuns wielding bows and arrows is one thing, Sand Niggers with AK47's & TNT another
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The age of empires is drawing to a close , most habitable places on earth already densely occupied. The age of more permanent civilisations is about to begin anew. The energy descent & the internet will slowly level the playing field. Conflict in the short term yes, but co operation wise & fruitful in the longer term. The first small steps in creating a type 1 Kardeshev Civilisation has begun.
