Anti-war conservative writer Steve Sailer is making an argument that Iran simply isn’t a threat that merits the level of concern being expressed in the west. To his credit, he has done the research and compiled extensive and detailed lists of exactly what military equipment the Mullahs possess.
The Iranian War Machine: So they've got 6 good MiG-29s, 30 Soviet Su-24s, and 35 pretty good Chinese planes. In contrast, Israel, for example, has "555 combat aircraft (90 probably stored)." And, of course, Iran is missing most of the components of post-1979 air supremacy, such as AWACS-style flying command posts and stealth planes.
Look, Iran was deterred, fairly successfully, by Saddam Hussein's post-1991 House of Cards regime. That's one of the reasons the President's better-informed father and the younger, more sensible Dick Cheney left it stand in 1991.
What the Iranians have been investing in are, intelligently enough, missiles and, presumably, nuclear weapons development, which makes a lot of sense if their military strategy is to deter attack. Iran hasn't started a war with anybody since, at least, the middle of the 19th Century.
The Mullahs want dominion over the Muslim world and eventually an entire world united under the one permissible and true faith of Islam. If the 1980’s taught the Mullahs anything, it was that conventional war will not achieve those goals. The levels of government below the leadership have bright and highly educated people, like University of California - Berkeley educated Mohammad Jafar Mojarrad, who understand global economics and the requirements, conventions and mutual agreements that keep the 21st century towering far, far above all previous economies built by man.
