If the United States were to attack Iran, how would they do it?

Question

Would they do air strikes? Missle Strikes from the sea? Both?

Or would a ground invasion also be involved?

My guess is that it would just be an endless series of air strikes.

Answer 1

There were some good answers here. The admiral of the fleet in the middle east was recently replaced with an admiral specializing in large scale naval battles. Our interests lay in keeping the Strait open for commercial shipping. Iran knows this and has threatened to mine it. It would be primarily a naval battle. Just two carriers have about 160 aircraft ... most of our carriers also have nukes on them ... seen them with my own eyes. You might even see tactical nukes used by Israel to take out the centrifuges. To avoid IED's and the like I think we would avoid any ground fighting. I ran can hide some weapons in the sand. They would have no navy left in a day or two.

One thing would be interesting to see ... if Iran hits a major Israeli city with a long range missile ... will Israel respond with conventional or nuclear weapons.

I tire of the spew coming out of dictatorships such as Iran. If we have to take them down I think we should take our cue for the level of destruction we wreak from Genghis Khan.

Answer 2

They will do what they have already telegraphed on more than one occasion, bush's apology speech being the last time. They intend to make it look like they want to stop Iran from ruining Iraq through their interventions there. bush will do air strikes on the border to stop "the incursions of insurgents" and thereby entice Iran into the fight. With a little escalation of the air strikes, Iran will have no choice but to fight back. With the Aircraft Battle Group off the coast of Iran in the Persian Gulf, plus our many bases in the region providing backup, a major air assault will then be "justified" to protect our troops. That is when all hell breaks loose, or the US Military steps in and quietly escorts Bush and Cheney out of the War Room and gives them a very serious talking to, maybe even an offer they can't refuse to play golf for the next two years. A major interruption in the flow of oil to the industrialized world would risk international economic ruin, especially if it went on for more than a couple of weeks. To say nothing of the risk to our Democracy.

Answer 3

The USA has already overextended itself with what it's doing now. It would be an absolute mess if they attack Iran. They wouldn't be able to handle it, and I don't think Russia would support an attack on Iran. The American government has spent so much on Iraq. Where does this money come from? It's not coming from out of thin air. The American economy would suffer even further if they attack Iran. It wouldn't be a smart move.

Answer 4

Just a guess

They would disrupt all government and satellite that belonged to Iran in space.

They would have a navel fleet to blockade the Persian gulf

They would send stealth bomber to knockout all air radar centers

combine navel and air force jet squadron to take out military airfields

Target all radio relay stations around military bases
Target all shipyard ports military and industrial

Iran's surface missiles would be the toughest to guard against since they can travel about 1000km so the fleets has to be out of range so the first volley of missiles would from subs .

a ground invasion would never take place.
unlike Iraq - Iran is unified

besides war is dumb, Iran knows it can be beaten unless they can develop nuclear weapons to have a chair let just say to be at the final table were all big decision are agreed upon

and also Israel would not be apart of the equation .
no use in upsetting the neighbors.

and also a ground force of at least 250, 000 in iraq just to let them know we have aground force as well

Answer 5

Assuming that it was the idea of the current president. I see the US going it alone. Sending to few ground forces, that are ill equipped. Compounding that by the fact that he is trying to earmark another 20,000 or so troops and 20 billion to clean up Iraq. I'm sure that he would coordinate that along with air strikes, missile attacks, etc. I'm not sure were he would get all this stuff from though. Maybe he would just implement the draft again, and be done with it.

Answer 6

US forces will do a lot of the preliminary dirty work and Israel will follow up with the kill.

First of all, I think the US will soften up Iran's air defenses as much as possible with air strikes and Tomahawk cruise missiles.

Israel will then hit Iranian nuclear sites with bunker busting low yield tactical nuclear bombs. At the same time US fighters will engage and shoot down Iranian interceptors.

Israeli strike aircraft on their way to and returning from Iran will be refueled over Iraq with US tanker aircraft.

Answer 7

Bunker bust the nuclear sites and pollute the country. Radiation takes care of the rest. Game over.

Answer 8

It will begin and end with over 500 sorties, and cruise missiles. Possible Spec Ops but not likely. This conflict will last one week to one month, with some containment "no fly zones". Unlike Iraq, we knew we would be rebuilding the city's and infrastructure so we were as careful as possible not to destroy things we would need at a later date. With Iran, no such luck for them, like Libya when Pres. Reagan reigned, we will just bomb them back to the first century.

Answer 9

Since the military has it's hands tied, they will probably have to launch an all out pea shooter assault. If they actually shoot someone they will be brought up on murder charges. Too bad, we have awesome weapons. We should use them.

Peace by superior firepower.

Answer 10

US will use air, naval, paratroop and amphibous attacks on Iran just like in Iraq in order to immediately control Iran within a short span of time.