The U.S. outguns Iran, but it faces painful realities in the event of a war

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Rising tensions that, according to President Trump, left the United States just short of open conflict with Iran this week highlight a grim reality that the Pentagon has coped with for years: While the U.S. military outguns Iran, Tehran could still make even a limited war painful.

Iran’s military has more than 700,000 troops, including a conventional army of about 350,000 soldiers, according to a Congressional Research Service report published last month. That’s not counting the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a specialized force comprising another 125,000 troops in its army and 20,000 personnel in its navy, the CRS report said.

It’s the IRGC that has created friction between the United States and Iran. The force, designated a foreign terrorist organization by the administration in April, patrols the strategically important Strait of Hormuz, oversees Iran’s ballistic missile programs and claimed responsibility for launching the missile that downed a U.S. RQ-4 surveillance drone over the Gulf of Oman early Thursday, prompting the Trump administration to plan a retaliatory strike before the president halted it late in the day.

A review of Iran’s weapons shows that many of them are “obsolete, obsolescent, or of relatively low quality,” according to a 2018 report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. But the report adds that Tehran’s ballistic and cruise missiles, air defenses and use of proxy forces can “scarcely be ignored.”

-snip-

Among the weapons that Iran possesses are antiaircraft missile systems such as the S-300, which can target objects at altitudes of 15 miles. Tehran also has a fleet of more than 300 aircraft, though nothing nearly as advanced as what the U.S. Air Force flies. The aircraft include Russian-made MiG-29 fighters and Su-24 bombers, and legacy American aircraft that the Pentagon has retired, such as the F-4. Iran bought them from the United States before its 1979 revolution, according to CRS.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/the-us-outguns-iran-but-it-faces-painful-realities-in-the-event-of-a-war/ar-AADeQpt?li=BBnb7Kz

Sad to say there are many in the GOP who's only wartime experience is a video game.

[captain queeg]

1. Trumps knowledge of military matters is limited to jingoistic war movies

I have no doubt the US could neutralize the Iranian Air Force and navy in short order. But what fills in the vacuum left? And the army is another story. That would take a large scale invasion. No one is going to back us up like the first Gulf War, he’s alienated our allies. The region is barely stable now. Even Bush stopped short of totally destroying Iraq though his son came much closer. So what did we get? A perpetually unstable country and a huge increase in terrorism. It makes me sick to see the amount of American dollars poured into that region while the infrastructure in the US crumbles.

[GeorgeGist]

2. One word ...

Vietnam.

[Xolodno]

3. Yeap.

They know they can't win in the traditional sense, but they can win by inflicting enough damage, casualties in the long run that eventually everyone at home wants it to end.