[_heimdall]

It likely wouldn't be kinetic, but nukes didn't stop us from chipping away at the Soviet Union.

I could be wrong, but I don't buy the public story that this is about regime change. You don't topple a government with air superiority alone, and you don't do it in a matter of days. I also don't expect the US would be okay letting the Iranian people pick who comes next. We have a history of installing puppets and that similarly doesn't happen only via bombing runs.

[knorker]

> I also don't expect the US would be okay letting the Iranian people pick who comes next.

Khamenei: Dead. Ahmadinejad: Dead.

Maybe the US/Israel have a list of people they plan on making "ineligible" to run Iran? Then let the people choose from whoever's left?

We'll see how many people get ticked off the checklist, but if it's a long list then I would say regime change is a more plausible story.

Will it be as obvious as Karzai? Probably not.

[knorker]

> It likely wouldn't be kinetic, but nukes didn't stop us from chipping away at the Soviet Union.

So all it stops is kinetic attacks? Do you not think that's a big deal? I'm pretty sure Iran and Khamenei think that's a big deal.

What do you mean by "How does that factor in here right now?"?

It pretty obviously does. How does it NOT?

> I don't buy the public story that this is about regime change.

They had Khamenei killed.

But this is also a topic very different from the nukes one.