What If Iran Strikes First?

Strike One!

Tons of teasing talk and juicy jazz about Little Satan igniting the ignition on the ME Regional Warmobile - maybe doing an airborne panty raid on the totally Gay Free Persian regime's tender, sensitive portions like Natanz, Esfahan or even the recently unveiled covert chicanery complex at Qom.

Or copping a feel from BH Liddlehart and doing an 'Indirect Approach" on Hiz'B'Allah - or even Syria. Even a rare bit of pillow talk about a Corleone Family style hit on 2 of Axis of Evil's all stars and their forward elements in Lebanon.

Instead - what if Iran freaks - reeling from the feeling that a pre emptive attack may prevent a regime changing attack - and fires off an offending offensive of her very own?

"...Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and other senior officials have proclaimed on numerous occasions their belief that the United States is a declining power, that the international order that underpinned U.S. influence is crumbling, and that U.S. strength has been sapped by long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"...Relatively recent personnel changes in the Iranian military command structure have created additional concerns about Iranian intentions.

"...Ahmadinejad's new defense minister, Brig. Gen. Ahmad Vahidi, made his career in the Quds Force -- the branch of the IRGC involved in terrorism and the export of the Islamic Revolution. He was personally implicated in the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 U.S. servicemen, as well as other acts of terrorism.

"...Recently appointed commander of the IRGC navy, Vice Adm. Ali Fadavi, led IRGC naval forces in the Persian Gulf near the end of the Iran-Iraq War, when they were bloodied by the U.S. Navy. He is reputed to be a hard-liner driven by a desire to avenge this humiliation and the accidental 1988 downing of an Iranian jetliner by the U.S. military.

"... Both were among the chorus of voices warning foreign powers not to board and search Iranian ships in accordance with recent U.N. sanctions.

Certain elements in Preacher Command "...might welcome, for domestic political reasons, a limited conflict with the United States.

"...This could take the form of a clash with U.S. naval forces in the Gulf or an act that prompts retaliatory U.S. airstrikes but spares Iran's economic infrastructure and its armed forces.

"...Iran's leadership might hope that such a clash would divert attention from the economic hardships caused by sanctions, provide a pretext for a more severe crackdown on the domestic opposition, and rally a divided population behind an embattled and unpopular regime.

Pic - "Any military action by the United States or Israel would have as its function the inflicting of severe damage on Iran’s nuclear installations, medium-range missile programmes and pre-empt any damaging Iranian response.”