Eviocracy just doesn’t sound as good. And l agree with you.
I wouldn’t think US is up for invading on the ground.
However, bombs in their various forms might be used to go after some nuclear or military targets. Particularly their ‘naval’ assets.
My gripe is that we disrupt the natural balance of power over there, then rush in to try and keep Turkey, Russia, or Wahabi terrorists from filling the void.
I keep slamming my hand in the door, but it doesn’t make stop hurting.
Empires rise and fall, Persia remains. The defensive advantages of Tehran alone would make an invasion of Iran the act of a lunatic.
Or a Macedonian or Mongol.
Alexander was a Persianophile and the Mongolians left none alive. But I take your point.
Regardless, any culture that survives Greece, Rome, the Khanate, the Ottomans etc, is Lindy effect compatible.
They’re basically the only ones that successfully invaded Afghanistan.
Also, saying that they “survived” Greece and Rome is such an affront to the Persians that it is beyond words.
When it came to the Greek states, they simply decided to stop wasting money and resources on massive anti-terror operations such as the ones planned by Darius and Xerxes and decided to wage war by proxy through one of the quarreling city-statelets.
As for Rome, they used Crassus’ severed head as a theater prop and an actual Roman Emperor was employed as a living footrest. The Romans never went past Mesopothamia and haven’t managed to jeopardize the heartland on the Zargoz mountains.
Attacking a modern society with air power is far more lethal than a mountainscape of goat herders or jungle dwelllers like in Vietnam.
Iran alone has really nothing except missles that would obviously be aimed at US regional assets and allies.
Were they Parthians or Persians? A question could be, what would have happened if the Persians or Parthians tried to invade Rome?
People seem to ignore or forget that the Romans also defeated the Parthians in battle and some Parthian successes were due to Rome being preoccupied with civil war. Trajan was very successful against them and who knows what would have happened had Caesar lived to invade Parthia. And let’s not forget that when Augustus told them to hand back the Roman standards, they did. He also got Armenia.
England didn’t fold because of the Blitz. Sure, you can just nuke Iran but we won’t, and they know that.
After Philip of Macedon conquered much of Greece except Sparta, he sent the Spartans a message telling them that, if he brought his army into their lands he would destroy their farms and kill their people. The Spartans replied, “if.”
A Persian pretender in exile in Rome lured and kidnapped the son of the Persian king so the standards and influence over Armenia were basically a ransom to get the heir to the throne back.
And the influence over Armenia didn’t matter much because the rulers of Armenia were notorious for changing sides - for example, Augustus’ own son died from wound received fighting those same Armenians.
The heartlands of Rome and Persia were too far apart for a successful invasion by either side. There’s no way Persians/Parthians/Sassanids could have endangered the Italian peninsula in any way and getting into Zargos mountains was too forbidding for the Romans. Hence during the seven centuries most of the wars were fought between the Mediterranean coast of Syria and Mesopotamia. Even Trajan didn’t venture further east and established a short lived rump client kingdom on the western outskirts.
The last Roman Persian war was one of the more momentous moments in history, as the two superpowers exhausted themselves completely. This enabled the desert tribes of the Arabian peninsula, united by a charismatic and unforgiving new religious leader to sweep them away.
Barbarossa may have found out the hard way.
That’s nothing compared to the Georgians who were changing alliances and religions every few years.
The US and its mobile capabilities would make short order of the Iranian cough navy and air force. It would also destroy the air defense systems and begin looking for missle launchers and probably nuclear sites. I doubt there would ever be any invasion, since that would kill most chances of regime change. I’m doubtful of this anyway since Isis would be an additional menace, of empowering just a different strongman.
I enjoy reading ancient and more current war history like you guys, but the military contest would simply not be much of one. This is not Greeks or Mongols shuttling across a continent on foot/horse to engage with blades.
Iran has 3 weapons - missles (probably stolen from US), threat of Russia sticking their nose in as an ally, US reluctance of killing (or the appearance thereof).
It also has religious fervor with some and pride with others.
Nope. They’re smart.
They don’t like Russians and are perfectly aware that the Russians would betray them the very moment the would get concessions in Ukraine.
No. Successive US administration wanted to bomb Iran, it’s that they’re ten times bigger population-wise than Iraq that dissuaded them.
And now they’ve got a new (well, old) friend.
Point taken.
Huge explosion in Beirut.
The Beirut port was destroyed. That means Lebanon is truly fucked. I’ve been to Beirut a couple of months before Hariri’s assassination in 2005 and it had that exilirating combination of glamour, bustling economic frenzy and seediness, allegedly much like Alexandria a century and half ago.
Now the country is imploding, Venezuela style. For the uninformed, this is how societal collapse looks like - middle class folks offering clothing and furniture on Facebook in exchange for foodstuffs.
Initial report say it was 7 TONS of ammonium nitrate that had been confiscated.
Hezbollah maintains it was just a fireworks factory 
Timothy al-Mcveigh?
