You Can't Just Bomb Iran

Israel does have the capacity to "hurt" Iran's nuclear ambitions but it's long range air power and strike abilities are not nearly strong enough to "finish" the job or to "clean up" afterwards. They can only drop a few bombs.

You can expect that if Israel attacks (and it will because it cannot allow itself to be nuked) it will be left up to the US to clean up the mess. Here is a report from Ralph Peters of the New York Times that explains what all is involved in bombing Iran. Bottom line ? You better do it right.

* Take out Iran's air-defense and intelligence network to protect our attacking aircraft.
* Take down its national communications network to degrade its military reaction.
* Strike dozens of dispersed nuclear-related targets - some of them in hardened underground facilities, with others purposely placed in populated areas.
* Hit every anti-ship-missile installation along Iran's Persian Gulf coast and the Straits of Hormuz. The reflexive Iranian response to an attack would be to launch sea-skimmer missiles against oil tankers and Western warships. The Iranians know that oil's now the world's Achilles heel.
* Destroy Iran's naval capacity, including small craft, in the first 24 hours to prevent attacks on shipping (expect suicide attacks, too).
* Immediately take out all of Iran's long-range and intermediate-range missiles - not just those that could strike Israel, but those that could hit Saudi, gulf-state or Iraqi oil refineries, pipelines, port facilities and oil fields . . . or our installations in the region.
* Hit the military's key command centers in Tehran, as well as regional headquarters, with special attention to the Revolutionary Guards' infrastructure.
* Expect three to six weeks of intense air and naval fighting, followed by months of skirmishing and asymmetrical warfare. And Iraq will heat back up, too.

Screw up the effort, and today's oil prices will double or triple, with severe downstream shortages showing up in a matter of weeks - every oil tanker's insurance will be canceled immediately, even if the Straits of Hormuz remain open (unlikely).
And we'll be in the global doghouse.

I think that this is a conservative estimate. I think Venezuela will suspend oil along with Nigeria and other world wide disruptions. The enemy has a strangle hold on the world. You can expect suicide bombers in Iraq and Israel. You can expect kidnappings all around the world. There would be a world wide reaction of Jihadist forces. But all in all we probably won't have any other alternative. Pray.