Iran's threat to America

The Washington Post reports this morning that if atttacked by American forces seeking to destroy their nuclear capabilities, Iran will launch a co-ordinated terror counterattack against civilian targets worldwide:

U.S. intelligence and terrorism experts say they believe Iran would respond to U.S. military strikes on its nuclear sites by deploying its intelligence operatives and Hezbollah teams to carry out terrorist attacks worldwide.
Iran would mount attacks against U.S. targets inside Iraq, where Iranian intelligence agents are already plentiful, predicted these experts. There is also a growing consensus that Iran's agents would target civilians in the United States, Europe and elsewhere, they said.

I don't doubt the truth of this for a minute. Iran's fanatical regime has been complicit in the slaughtering of civilians, mostly (but not only) Israelis, for decades. They have not allowed Hezbollah to strike American targets in the past few years as they have learned the lesson of 9/11 (yes, Americans will fight back), but that does not mean they do not retain the capability to strike us in a number of places.

But that is to be understood as the price of war - if we try to eliminate Iran's war machine, and in doing so most likely destroy their Islamist government, we can expect them to fight for survival using every dark tool in their arsenal. We have to be prepared, and to have the stomach for this, before we move on Iran. Otherwise, the media will be calling it "another Vietnam" and demanding our surrender even before the mullahs do.

And I wonder if the Post article today is not meant in some way to influence public opinion on this matter; reflexivley anti-war, even against a terror-supporting, budding nuclear dictatorship like Iran, the media might be trying to throw a scare into us. Note the follwing unsupported paragraph:

Because Iran's nuclear facilities are scattered around the country, some military specialists doubt a strike could effectively end the program and would require hundreds of strikes beforehand to disable Iran's vast air defenses. They say airstrikes would most likely inflame the Muslim world, alienate reformers within Iran and could serve to unite Hezbollah and al-Qaeda, which have only limited contact currently.

Which specialists are these and what are their qualifications? We don't know, because the Post doesn't feel the need to inform us. But Iran does not have "vast air defenses"; their air force is falling apart by their own admission due to lack of spare parts, and while they may have plenty of anti-aircraft batteries, it is of limited use against guided missles and Stealth bombers.
And I for one have no fear about "inflaming the Muslim world"; this is a canard again used by unnamed "experts" to try to frighten us into submission by the thought of glowering faces shouting angry slogans as they engage in wanton destruction. It should not scare us off from what may need to be done to save the world from a second holocaust.

This is a war that has already begun, well before 9/11; it is too late for threats of retaliation and dark warnings of sinister alliances to deter us from fighting to save what remains of the values of Western Civilization.