[WhoIam]

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Here's a scenario I've thought of. US bombs Iran's nuclear facilities. US realizes too late that Amadin...Ahmadhin...Iran's leader isn't bluffing and Iran launches a full-scale assault against spread-out US troops in Iraq. The US is forced to transfer troops from other parts of the world to deal with the conflict. As a result of this power vacuum, China and North Korea invade Taiwan and S Korea respectively.

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You are assuming that this is a napoleonic groundwar type situation. We wouldnt get sucked if Iran invaded Iraq, that would be enough of an afront that it would justify us carpet bombing half the middle east, civilian casualites be damned. Something like that actually means we'ed be pulling out troops, and the contigent that would be actually bombing would be very small. Our ground forces would actually be better regrouped than they are now. In fact, this would be the time to do it (invade taiwan/sk) becuase our forces are fairly spread out.

[/ QUOTE ] I've read that US troops would be extremely vulnerable to Iranian attack because they're currently spread out across the country on peace-keepking missions rather than grouped defensively as they would in a conventional war. They would probably be able to regroup, but there would be a major effect on morale and public opinion, much like the Tet offensive. Of course all this would depend on some sort of surprise.