From my understanding, the whole ordeal was sparked from the last few events:

Iran is pissed at the US because Iran does not have full control over their nuclear program. Hardly any other country wants to give that amount of control to Iran because of the large amount of evidence that suggests Iran is attempting to build nuclear weapons instead of clean energy. So Iran decides to make a power-play and threatens to close the strait of Hormuz, which would completely disrupt the world oil trade and probably send the US into another economy crises due to the almost guaranteed spike in gas prices. So the US says like hell you will, and makes a ballsy move by moving one of their nuclear aircraft carriers and a guided missile cruiser thru the strait as a show of force. Well Iran counters by announcing that they do not want to see another US aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf and that they are not going to repeat themselves. Since the US always keeps an aircraft carrier in that area at all times it will be very interesting to see what will happen. I think that Iran is making a HUGE mistake by threatening the US and that they vastly underestimate the power of the US military. In the last gulf war one US aircraft carrier delivered over five million pounds of ordinance to various targets. Pretty scary power.

No. Iranian bluster (or misrepresentation to the media for the more paranoid) is nothing new. 5th fleet has been there for a long time, and for good reason. Ever note what usually happens before a despotism is toppled by its own people? Ask our Brit friends what happened after the Falklands.

It will be good for the oil speculators who play the spot commodity pricing game. Funny-money price volatility being a good thing for those with the money and greed to take advantage. Good thing most oil is NOT traded on that basis, but on long-term contracts direct with producers.

Nobody gets to start wars nowdays except the US. Most likely the US will decide Iran is the last Gulf state they havent already helped with their oil surplus and start a peace keeping mission which involves blitzing the fookers, deposing the current regime and backing lawless insurgents that dont have a hope of forming a stable government in return the US will get petrol at 50 cents a litre for a couple more years.

I think no.
Theres been pushy shovie for years. Escalated at election time for better and worse.
Gaurantee you this is deeper than the now.
If Mock my dinner John thinks hes got it bad now wait till theres no Muslim Presidant for him to deal with
This thread will self destruct in less than one day.
Superdukes are really good mooorsickles and pictures of naked ladies sure are fun to look at.

In addition to losing they would also starve if they closed the straights as most of their imports and food come in and all of their oil leaves that way. Best estimate is that they could only close it for a few days at most after which their ports would be smoking ruins and their surface vessels underwater. They are great card players, what they need is time to complete the enrichment process but this was a clumsy and obvious bluff. Not up to their usual standards.

Bet they have the "Islamabomb",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,just about done,,,,,,,,,,,

The US will decide to break world laws (again) if it is beneficial to their corrupt backers and England and Australia will be their retarded little cronies... We are as guilty as any in our campaign of hate and intolerance.
If the US keeps marketing weopons like it does eventually they will come up against an army that has somewhere near the same firepower instead of makeshift weopons and AK's and they will get their arses kicked.
My mum always said that it's nice to be nice...

If they close the straight though I believe there to be more a problem then just the US because we are not the only ones consuming oil from that region. US might be the primary but there are other countries they will have to contend with. If I recall,I thought the Saudis was going to open up their extra reserve if they try and close the straight to conteract Iran. This in turn will seriously hurt Iran and just put everyone's money elsewhere and they will have no choice but to fold.

As for the bomb they might have got it close but do they even have reliable long range missile capabilities to really make it a threat to the US? It might be threatening to other countries which would make the US and UN step in anyway but even if they get a decent bomb made I would think more then just the US would step in.

I would like to rescind earlier statement and concur with DribbleDuke... Boobies and Broom Broom!

The whole point of the Iranians conducting their exercise is to demo their latest home-grown missile in order to build a credible threat and to buy time.
If Iran can prevent the US and others from taking decisive action for long enough then the Iranians will have their nuclear weapon capability and the ability to deliver it within their region.
Having said that I think its entirely possible that Iran will pick a fight with the US.
When the Iran Iraq war started Iran was given no chance by Western military experts but the Iranians held out indefinitely and inflicted some significant defeats against the well equipped Iraqi army. (Equipped with Russian, American, British and a lot of French hardware and lead by officers trained at West Point and Sandhurst)
I suspect that the Iranians will be willing to push the US very hard on this and, if attacked, they are gambling that they will at least not loose.
The only realistic option the US (and its allies) will have is to launch air strikes. A ground war with Iran would be unthinkable and may be unwinnable even if funds were available. After all the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were not paid for by the American tax payer but by the US borrowing money from the Chinese.

Seriously people, it's just a slow news week.

My hovercraft is full of eels

I think the Russian's are supporting Iran nuclear development greatly because they want to control the world oil trade. The middle east is supposedly on the down slope of peak oil, but Russia has barely been tapped. The entire reason why the USSR went to war in Afghanistan back in the 80's was to run an oil pipeline through there (assuming they allied with Pakistan afterwards). Now they want to run a pipeline direct through Iran instead, which will cost them nothing or very little since the infrastructure is already there.

My question would be "can they afford to start on another unwinnable war"?

Yeah and that makes about as much sense as this post does in being on this forum

The Superduke is a really good motorcycle and pictures of naked ladies are fun to look at.

Study the "Kuwaiti Tanker War" of 1987-88.
I was there. Iran did the same kind of things and STFU once we blew up a commercial airliner that they flew out of vector airways in an attempt to intimidate the fleet. We also had a very fun day disposing of some Harpoon missles and other ordnance. Those Swedish Boghammars were sure expensive targets. They used to target the straits with fire control radar from their Silkworm missiles but when the battleships transited they very quickly shut off the radar.
It is a shame we mothballed all of the battleships. It was a force that they understood.

Kind of like pointing a .50 cal at a crowd of Iraqis and no one flinching but when you pulled out a pistol, they scattered.

IF we invaded Oz it would be the first country that is worth a shit that we have invaded in a long time.

Why is it wars always happen in shitty locations?

Oh and ladies please invade!

Please for give me for redirecting thread but I got this situation.
If I look at a pic that is to big to fit on my screen, I miss a portion to the right. If I save that pick to a photo folder and reopen said(aforementioned) photo, I get the whole shot. This sometimes will fix itself if there is a reload of window, but this is few and far between.
The reason I bring this up is when I went to view another pic that was cut short. A pic of a dual seat conversion on an R that was posted up on a thread nearbuy, I got to see next to it a pic posted up of Linga's crossed up riding prowess. It seems that it was back brake induced as it seems not enough lean angle out of apex and no smoke iminating from smoken the rear out. Please do tell and extrapolate to your hearts content.
Nice boobies and if they were cut short of view, I would still stare away at those luscious lips.

Not me mate, just a random google pic before work.
And I concur viewing clutch hand and body position rear brake for sure. Nearly didn't post it but I was pressed for time. I'm off to work now for a few weeks so there will be plenty of time to post coming up...
I heard that apples are a bit notorious for cutting up the pics... If you have an apple... If not, shows I know not what I speak about...

Apple yes and its the only gripe, but a big one.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-01-06/o ... ts/3760662

Backs my thoughts on no money and threats from China