If Iran invades Iraq, will it escalate to World War 3?

Question

If U.S. forces leave and Iran invades Iraq, what happens next ? Does Kuwait fall next ? Does Israel some how get involved ? What other countries join the fighting ?
I 'm not an expert on the Middle East, but it's starting to look very scary to me.

Answer 1

If Iran invades Iraq??????? Iran is already in Iraq and fighting an unconventional proxy war with America. I know because when I was over there in 2005 It was their technology that was getting the reputation as being the most lethal knowledge behind those powerful IEDs which can punch through up-armor. Its unconventional invasion is already making the rebuiding of that country difficult.
This is one reason why Bush giving authorization to capture or kill Iranian operatives in Iraq became necessary. They are in Iraq literally by numbers in terms of thousands.
To answer more in line with your question: If they invaded Iraq conentionally it would be a hell of a fight. We could definitely win it. We have a combat hardened military force and superior weapons and equipment.
It would ony turn into WW 3 if we could not keep surrounding countries out of the fight. For the most part I think they would stay out. If any thing I think surrounding countries such as Jodan, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia would at the very least tacitly support our fight to eject them from the country as they really don't seem to keen on the prospects of a radicalized Shia/Persian populace being a dominant force in the middle-east.
The only question remaining here is whether or not we could
build up sufficient military forces fast enough to face down this event and simutaneously maintain some momentum of progress in Afganistan.

Answer 2

No, Iran would risk a lot, the President of Iran is unnerving but he's not stupid (at least the other people running the country isn't). Invading Iran would force the U.S. to retaliate. Israel would not (or should not) join. U.S. and many countries would tell Israel personally to no join when they wanted too, there is no reason for Israel to do so, we don't have a written alliance that says Israel should help the U.S. in the Middle East militaristic way.
There should not be more than 2 countries if war breaks out in there. Hopefully Iran doesn't officially pull other Middle Eastern countries into it and I don't they should nor could. If so, it could easily involve NATO countries.
But Iran invading Iraq at it's most disorganized and out of control stage would not happen. Even though it just might seem temping enough to just grab it for their Shi'ite Allah, not the Sunni one. Though a religious based government could be unpredictable.
Oh yes, there are actually "unaligned" Iranian agents there. Iran actually sends their own Shi'ite fighters to fight the Sunnis and even the U.S. forces there. That's why we now have a policy of capturing and treating any Iranian agents there as an enemy. Since they are funding terrorist and insurgents, playing a puppet war with the U.S. in tangled in it.

Answer 3

Don't you love how people answer your question by telling you what the enemy will absolutely not do? As if they are in the meetings with the Iranian govt.
Let's try to deal with the question you asked.
If Ira invaded Iraq after a U.S. pull out, the U.S. would likely be forced to initiate an all out strike on Iran. It would likely not turn into a world war because Iran would be seen as the agreessor much like Saddam was seen as the agressor when he invaded Kuwait, however, it is unlikely we would get the coalition support we got in the first gulf war. We would have to put our with drawl from Iraq on hold and reengage the enemy there and now in Iran...with our current troop levels, we would likely be unsuccessful in our attempts to stop the Iranians.

Answer 4

Its very doubtfull Iran would invade Iraq, irregaurdless of what you read in the news the Iranian military is not that strong. While the Iraqi military is weak right now they will be more than capable of protecting their country in the near future. As far as kuwait their their military has been given extensive training and they have some of the most updated American equipment, that and we would still have bases their wether we leave Iraq or not, Iran wouldnt win.

Answer 5

Iran will never 'officially' invade Iraq. Such an action would assure their annihilation as a country. But they will go on supplying weapons, bombs, and any aid to terrorists in Iraq for as long as there are any Americans there. And they may continue to do that even after Americans have left. However, if Iranwere to invade, it would surely spark a larger conflict. Maybe not WWIII. But it would be big and bloody.

Answer 6

Very likely Iran will not invade Iraq. We will probably invade Iran and bomb the crap out of them and be at war with the whole Middle East including Saudi and Egypt.

Answer 7

I think if we pull out of Iraq and Iran did move on Iraq, there will be more ME countries join the fight. This could lead to a world involved war. It is kind of unnerving, because we will never know until we do pull our troops out.

Answer 8

Come one man. Iran will not attack Iraq now. Attaking Iraq is like attaking the mighty USA cause USA is runnung the country now. And there cant be any woeld war three. We saw the Israel attaking lebanon recently. No there was no sign of World war, just the slightest intervention by USA. Anyway i hate both USA and Israel.

Answer 9

Everyone should be scared. Iran is hard after nuclear weapons. Israel and the US can't afford to let them get them.

That is the only problem I have with the IRAQ war. Bush said we went there to stop WMDs, but now N. Korea and Iran are both throwing them in our face and he does nothing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! To me that almost proves the lie. You want to stop the axis of evil and WMDs, you better take a look at those 2 counties.

Oh yea, lets not forget that China just tested missiles that will shot down a satelite. The same satelite that guide our GPS bombs and run much of our communications for warfare. We better have our starwars program done!

Answer 10

no. because iran won't invade iraq; what does iran have to gain?
if this happened, israel would probably get involved. when israel gets involved, the rest of the west gets involved. and btw, israel, ALWAYS wins, and I'm not citing biblical stuff, it just does, because it has military superiority in the region.
now we know that the USA is the second most powerful nation in the world, militarially, barring only china, where their standing military is something close to the population of the USA. still, we're better armed than china, so in the event of war, we would probably win-- although our economy would initially colapse, though, it would get better, very quickly, and stronger than before.

now, in your hypothetical war, china is not likely to get involved, so the major countries are the USA, Israel, Saudi Arabia and The UK.
it ought to be the aforementioned against Iran.
who wins?
iran invades iraq, the USA would declare war on Iran, Israel would declare war on iran, the UK would declare war on iran, and if memory serves, about half of the EU would declare war on Iran. and saudi arabia declares war on iran--what happens? iran go boom. and they get a new government. the major problem? the president of iran is almost as crazy as bush-- but twice as shrewd.

now, if he starts a ww3 I can't see how it would benifit him, unless there's more going on here than meets the eye.
as for bush? starting ww3 would make him very rich indeed.
so I think we need some major power limitations from congress. time to tie his hands down.