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The Chinese do have significant and growing interests in Iran as they're even more dependent on oil imports than is the US. IIRC they recently signed a deal potentially worth many many billions of dollars to participate in Iran's oil industry. That, along with the fact that Iran is a major Russian client, guarantees that the nuclear issue won't be resolved by the toothless UNSC.
One weak spot the Iranians have is the fact that they are heavy gasoline users but have little indigenous refining capacity. They import something like 2/3 of all of the finished gasoline they use. Take out their refineries (refineries burn very well), damage their port facilities substantially, and blockade their ports and the entire nation grinds to a halt in a couple of weeks. From there it's a contest of wills.
Another option is to load up the B2s and take out the mullahs and leadership. Whatever comes next really can't be much worse than what's there now. Not a highly predictible solution but definitely the quickest of the lot.
Iran is anything but a monolithic nation, it's essentially a Shia Persian core ringed almost completely by ethnic and religious minorities who've rarely been treated well by their Persian overlords. Sufficiently armed, trained, and motivated they could be a royal pain in the ass to the current Iranian government. Right now the CIA *should* be there fomenting a civil war but that would require them to pause in their jihad against the Bush administration long enough to attempt to overthrow a government other than our own. Given their behavior the past few years I'm not optimistic that they'll be able to bring themselves to focus their collective attention on doing our nation's business while W is still in office.
Converting UF4 to the HEU needed for nuclear weapons is a very power-intensive process. If we get there before they enrich sufficient uranium there's always the option of taking out their power plants and letting the entire country sit in the dark until they come to their senses. No electricity, no uranium enrichment.
Of course anything that's done to Iran will immediately double oil prices so the choice is a year or two of $6/gallon gas or seeing western cities vanish in bright flashes in a few years. Take your pick.
One weak spot the Iranians have is the fact that they are heavy gasoline users but have little indigenous refining capacity. They import something like 2/3 of all of the finished gasoline they use. Take out their refineries (refineries burn very well), damage their port facilities substantially, and blockade their ports and the entire nation grinds to a halt in a couple of weeks. From there it's a contest of wills.
Another option is to load up the B2s and take out the mullahs and leadership. Whatever comes next really can't be much worse than what's there now. Not a highly predictible solution but definitely the quickest of the lot.
Iran is anything but a monolithic nation, it's essentially a Shia Persian core ringed almost completely by ethnic and religious minorities who've rarely been treated well by their Persian overlords. Sufficiently armed, trained, and motivated they could be a royal pain in the ass to the current Iranian government. Right now the CIA *should* be there fomenting a civil war but that would require them to pause in their jihad against the Bush administration long enough to attempt to overthrow a government other than our own. Given their behavior the past few years I'm not optimistic that they'll be able to bring themselves to focus their collective attention on doing our nation's business while W is still in office.
Converting UF4 to the HEU needed for nuclear weapons is a very power-intensive process. If we get there before they enrich sufficient uranium there's always the option of taking out their power plants and letting the entire country sit in the dark until they come to their senses. No electricity, no uranium enrichment.
Of course anything that's done to Iran will immediately double oil prices so the choice is a year or two of $6/gallon gas or seeing western cities vanish in bright flashes in a few years. Take your pick.
You guys do realize that when political or religious threads get brought up here, they usually wind up getting deleted, right? 
haha
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