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Monitoring the situation in Iran

Why's a ground invasion not going to happen?
The cost would be extreme. Iran is mountainous and full of chokepoints if you're trying to enter by land. Entering by sea requires establishment of a beachhead in a killzone. Iran's population is double Iraq or Afghanistan and a good portion of them don't like America. An invasion would result in massive casualties without any guarantee of success.
 
Why's a ground invasion not going to happen?

Because of the number of American soldiers that will get killed. This war with Iran is not popular among American voters. Support for Trump and more importantly Republican politicians will crash when this bombing campaign not only lasts weeks/months, but is followed by a ground invasion of Iran where every bit of terrain is fought over just like in Ukraine. Americans might be OK with a quick blitzkrieg war with an enemy that's already knocked down (like Iraq), but they're absolutely not ready for another Vietnam. And that's what Iran could become. Iran is a much, MUCH tougher opponent than any country the US fought in the past 60 years.

 
Three U.S. Air Force F-15E shot down by friendly fire, tsk tsk, such a majestic and legendary fighter with one of the best track record in the history of fighter jets deserve better than fucking dummy fumbles
 
The cost would be extreme. Iran is mountainous and full of chokepoints if you're trying to enter by land. Entering by sea requires establishment of a beachhead in a killzone. Iran's population is double Iraq or Afghanistan and a good portion of them don't like America. An invasion would result in massive casualties without any guarantee of success.

The Iranian population is able and willing to suffer enormous casualties in a fight for its existence. They fought an extremely bloody war with Iraq in the 1980ies where 200,000 soldiers/civilians got killed. That didn't stump them.
 
Why's a ground invasion not going to happen?
in sports terms, the IRGC would have the Home ground advantage.

just look at the Ukraine/Russia conflict to see how much a home ground advantage can make a difference even when the numbers aren't in your favor as the defenders.
 
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The Iranian population is able and willing to suffer enormous casualties in a fight for its existence. They fought an extremely bloody war with Iraq in the 1980ies where 200,000 soldiers/civilians got killed. That didn't stump them.
America lacks the political capital to to the same. It had enough trouble in Afghanistan and Iran has similar terrain while being almost 3 times larger. Could the US win? Definitely. Would the us have massive casualties? No doubt.
 
Because that would probably kill a lot of americans.
There is always a chance the WARFIGHTERS crowd in the Pentagon believes they can pull it off, especially with the Maduro thing having gone so well. Plenty of them have a score to settle with Iran, for good reason with Iran's involvement in Iraq, but it may cloud their judgement.
 
There is always a chance the WARFIGHTERS crowd in the Pentagon believes they can pull it off, especially with the Maduro thing having gone so well. Plenty of them have a score to settle with Iran, for good reason with Iran's involvement in Iraq, but it may cloud their judgement.

It's a mistake to think Iran is just like Venezuela. Even though a majority of Iran is secular/non religious, the regime can count on millions upon million of religious hardliners in the population to support a war with their arch enemies Israel and the US. And I bet a large percentage of secular Iranians would support their government. They may hate their government, but that doesn't mean they're automatically on the side of the US and Israel. When those two countries are bombing your country and innocent civilians (including dozens of school children) die, even people who'd normally hate the mullahs will feel a patriotic urge to defend their country. It's easy for Iranian refugees in the west to say "bomb Iran so the people will revolt!", but the Iranians inside Iran who now have to endure the bombings will probably not see this as the long awaited liberation.
 
The cost would be extreme. Iran is mountainous and full of chokepoints if you're trying to enter by land. Entering by sea requires establishment of a beachhead in a killzone. Iran's population is double Iraq or Afghanistan and a good portion of them don't like America. An invasion would result in massive casualties without any guarantee of success.

I wonder how many goals will USA achieve here by just using ranged weapons.

End goal is to stop them from doing anything nuclear related? In theory Iranian people could use this as an opportunity to topple the current regime.
 
There is always a chance the WARFIGHTERS crowd in the Pentagon believes they can pull it off, especially with the Maduro thing having gone so well. Plenty of them have a score to settle with Iran, for good reason with Iran's involvement in Iraq, but it may cloud their judgement.

We don't have an invasion force in Venezuela though.
 
We don't have an invasion force in Venezuela though.
The objective there was very limited, grab Maduro and then call it regime change. Even though it was no different from Maduro chocking on a chicken bone, his VP took over who is of the same ideology.

For Iran the goal that is set is clearly regime change on a much bigger scale. They hope the Iranian people will somehow manifest a force powerful enough to kick out the IRGC but this seems quite unlikely. There are hundreds of thousands of Basji and other paramilitaries who will be cracking skulls of anyone who tries anything and lots of them will have been bombed in their bases the rest is just at home or dispersed to small locations, ready for orders.

At some point the sides will run out of the long range fire resources they are willing to spend on this. Trump must then choose to accept defeat or move up the escalation ladder.
 
It's still kinda wild to me that we FINALLY bitch slap Iran, and irans response is to just bomb the fuck out of everyone around them (except Iraq).

Some "friends" Iran was to everyone lol
 
The objective there was very limited, grab Maduro and then call it regime change. Even though it was no different from Maduro chocking on a chicken bone, his VP took over who is of the same ideology.

For Iran the goal that is set is clearly regime change on a much bigger scale. They hope the Iranian people will somehow manifest a force powerful enough to kick out the IRGC but this seems quite unlikely. There are hundreds of thousands of Basji and other paramilitaries who will be cracking skulls of anyone who tries anything and lots of them will have been bombed in their bases the rest is just at home or dispersed to small locations, ready for orders.

At some point the sides will run out of the long range fire resources they are willing to spend on this. Trump must then choose to accept defeat or move up the escalation ladder.

In Venezuela, Rodriguez is allowed to run the government under threat of removal from the US. She is doing everything the US wants.

Very different situation in Iran. Not sure what the end game is, frankly.
 
It's still kinda wild to me that we FINALLY bitch slap Iran, and irans response is to just bomb the fuck out of everyone around them (except Iraq).

Some "friends" Iran was to everyone lol
It's the only card they can play to quote the orange monkey, put pain on Americas allies in the region forcing Trump to negotiate a ceasefire.. this is all gonna end in a cluster fuck of fuck all changing, if the Iranian people don't rise up and topple the regime which will need the backing of the army / local police to fight the religious mullahs and the IRGC then once the bombs stop dropping the IRGC will simply go back to slaughtering the protesters.

It simply won't work without a functioning opposition party to take over not to mention if and that's a massive IF the regime does topple, think of the massive wave of revenge killings that'll erupt

Just like in Ukraine this American adminstration has been buttfucked by the Russians into dropping support for Ukraine and now the Israeli's have lubed them up again to attack their sworn enemy in Iran
 
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Political will (as a reflection of the public's tolerance) is the limiting factor on US military action, not capability.

The casualties sustained in the post-9/11 wars were ultimately deemed too much and carried on over too long a period for the perceived benefit, but if you could magically set that concern aside, it's not like those casualty levels were remotely close to being unsustainable in real terms.

The US could obviously conquer Iran if it wanted to (and if it switched morals off it would be trivially easy), but the current tolerance for US casualties is incredibly low. Low as in, if this current operation starts to drip-drip up to ~50 KIA without a clear sign of where this is going I think domestic support will be running on fumes.

The only way I could see this changing is if the American public actually experienced and/or felt a direct threat (not a vague idea of a possible threat some time in the future), or if there is an attack too symbolic of being a threat to America to ignore. If casualties keep slowly ticking up the sentiment will be 'why the hell are we even doing this?'; if we see smoke pouring out of a carrier and sailors jumping into the sea, the sentiment will instead be one of righteous fury and a desire to carpet bomb Tehran.

I suspect the Iranian regime was actually aware of this apparent contradiction and would have acted accordingly, but with central command and control now so beheaded anything could happen.
 
It's the only card they can play to quote the orange monkey, put pain on Americas allies in the region forcing Trump to negotiate a ceasefire.. this is all gonna end in a cluster fuck of fuck all changing, if the Iranian people don't rise up and topple the regime which will need the backing of the army / local police to fight the religious mullahs and the IRGC then once the bombs stop dropping the IRGC will simply go back to slaughtering the protesters.

It simply won't work without a functioning opposition party to take over not to mention if and that's a massive IF the regime does topple, think of the massive wave of revenge killings that'll erupt

Beirut out here catching strays lol
 
The objective there was very limited, grab Maduro and then call it regime change. Even though it was no different from Maduro chocking on a chicken bone, his VP took over who is of the same ideology.
It is different, because the lesson the successor would take in each scenario is different. Maduro's successor is not thinking 'hmmm, I'd better be careful eating chicken', she's thinking 'if I conduct myself in a way unacceptable to the US that could just as easily happen to me'.

The same lesson is currently in the process of being taught to Iranian leadership. Time will tell whether it works.
 
Hopefully we will collapse all Muslim terror organizations in the middle east.




Unfortunately they will have to destroy them in the western countries through infiltration arrest and removal.
 
I hope everyone can now see and understand why Iran must not be allowed to have nuclear weapons. Because they are actually crazy enough to use them.

Also even if they didn't use them, do we really want a world in which right in the centre of the East and the West you have another North Korea (but worse) which is frequentely threatening neighbouring countries with their nukes and firing tests all over the place, even over other countries.

The answer from everyone is no.

I also think radical Islamists and their glorification of martydom makes them more likely to use such weapons than any other country in the world. Especially on let's say Israel.
 
Hopefully we will collapse all Muslim terror organizations in the middle east.




Unfortunately they will have to destroy them in the western countries through infiltration arrest and removal.


I'm concerned those already here (US) are going to be pulling some shit very soon. Iran falling is going to trigger these people and I'm very much not looking forward to that.
 
It's still kinda wild to me that we FINALLY bitch slap Iran, and irans response is to just bomb the fuck out of everyone around them (except Iraq).

Some "friends" Iran was to everyone lol

Those friends host US bases on their soil which made them targets for Iranian drones. I didn't understand why Iran would send drones to Cyrprus, but the UK is now allowing the US to use the air force base for sorties against Iran so that's why they're also being targeted.
 
Just like in Ukraine this American adminstration has been buttfucked by the Russians into dropping support for Ukraine and now the Israeli's have lubed them up again to attack their sworn enemy in Iran

If the Iranians get nukes the entire region will get glassed.
And while the Iranian regime remains committed to getting nukes, this remains a clear and present danger.

At the end of the day, the Israeli's will not stand idle and get nuked. They will launch first and then the whole region will go up.
The reality is that although they have maintained nuclear ambiguity since the 80's, their doctrine states directly they will use nuclear weapons in the event of an attack!

The deeper issue is that the threat of M.A.D isn't a restraint to religious maniacs like the IRGC, nobody (rightfully) trusts them not to bring about armageddon.

The hard truth that people don't want to accept is not everyone thinks the way we do in the West. Its called mirror fallacy, and its why so many have a mistaken belief that everything can be solved through negotiation.
 
Also even if they didn't use them, do we really want a world in which right in the centre of the East and the West you have another North Korea (but worse) which is frequentely threatening neighbouring countries with their nukes and firing tests all over the place, even over other countries.

The answer from everyone is no.

I also think radical Islamists and their glorification of martydom makes them more likely to use such weapons than any other country in the world. Especially on let's say Israel.
Most definitely! I hope more people open their eyes to the situation. I feel bad for your average Iranian who wants to live their life. But by the looks of it, most of them are rather happy about what's happening.
 
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Yeah, he was disastrous for the region and our allies. Pallets of cash, making nuclear deals with a "death to America and its allies" regime, etc..

As all past globalist administrations were.
That seemed like better deal to me. $400 million that was going to Iran either way through a previous agreement and our sailors back home. Now we have lost 4 warriors so far and are out billions.
 
Most definitely! I hope more people open their eyes to the situation. I feel bad for your average Iranian who wants to live their life. But by the looks of it, most of them are rather happy about what's happening.

I wonder. I bet that during WW2 there were many Germans hoping the Nazi regime would fall and that there'd finally come an end to these bloody wars that left millions of their fathers, brothers and husbands dead on so many European battlefields. But how many of them would want to lose everything they owned to achieve that goal? Almost all currently living Germans see that ultimately they won by losing WW2, but their (great) grand parents who lived through the end of the war would have a different opinion if they'd been asked in August 1945 with their cities transformed into ruins

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I hope for Iranians who want regime change that this war will be short and decisive and the number of civilian deaths will be minimal. But wars are a tricky thing, they're so easy to start and they're usually so difficult to end. Look at what happened with the Ukraine war. Putin envisioned an easy Russian victory over Ukraine but that was a horrible miscalculation. Instead it became the bloodiest European war since WW2. It's been four years and there's no end in sight.
 
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