Unlike Iraq and Afghanistan (and stretching the troops even more thinly not to mention no public support on the home front) the U.S. cannot go into Iran without strong coalition support and the forumlation of a strong, uniform coalition.

Make no mistake they WILL be going in. (Unfortunately they missed the most opportune window for invasion back in 1980 right after Reagan was elected. Had they gone in then, the US would have had the overwhelming support of the populace. (Payback for the Hostage/Embassy thing and all that.)

The other good window - again missed - was during the 1991 Gulf war. They were right in the neighbourhood and had all of the requiste ground troops and muscle to have gotten the job done. (The whole middle east pretty much needs a military enema anyway.)

But, it's a catch 22. They HAVE to put the current hardline-fundamentalist Iranian regime down and the majority of their youthful population do want them gone, and would love closer ties to the west on many different levels, not to mention culture, trade and commerce.

If they don't, Iran WILL toil and achieve armageddon with a first nuclear strike on Israel, and of course the appropriate nuclear response will immediately follow.

Before that happens though, they WILL export their nuclear technology to Al Qaeda, the west bank and gaza, Syria, Yemen, Sudan .... you get the picture. Course all of those countries have clearly demonstrated that they are rational, secure, abide and adhere to treaties, and would never initiate a first strike on Israel. :-)

And if they do go in, they'll unite all the terrorists even more closely in their various Jihads and attacks on the west.

Expect oil to hit between 150 and 200 dollars a barrel shortly after the invasion begins.

Course the US has only known since the Opec crisis of 72/73 that they shouldn't be depending on foreign oil, nor building a middle eastern foreign policy around such; but hey now that pretty the entire Arab world (and Venezuela) will shut off those taps, they haven't much choice but to finally put some emphasis into alternate fuels. In the meantime the western economies will go to shit.

I don't delude myself into thinking that these opinions would be popular here in the bastien of bleeding heart, leftwing liberalism, but I believe the predictions made will unfortunately come to be, one way or another. You fools should support an administration that will do whatever it takes to safeguard your country from mainland terrorist attacks. Your constitution IS your achilles heel and the terrorists know that as well. It needs to be modernized for the current time we're living in, not based on how civilization was in 1776.