Iranian agression or puffs of smoke

Iran upped the ante in their most recent attempts to catch the ire of the world by conducting a new series of war games - this time in the air. You know, paper airplanes and surface to air missiles that always miss their mark. More than likely this is in response to some of the fluff floating around on the interwebs concerning Israel's likely hood of launch air strikes to delay Iran's ever vigilant quest for the power of the atom. Mr Poopy Pants, otherwise known as Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (for those of you living under rocks he's the supreme ruler of Iran not to be confused with Mr Douchebag Mahmoud Ahmadinejad), recently talked about eliminating the state of Israel from the world forum - who would have thunk it?

Every one should really appreciate radical thinkers, you know the ones that think outside the box but Iran might be fingering the wrong country here to pick a fight with. Let's look at war as a pure numbers game: Iran expends roughly $7 billion a year (2010 estimates) versus Israel's $13 billion. Iran certainly talks the big talk but Israel walks the big walk - heck almost their entire air force is comprised of US born jets. Let's not forget Israel's largest backer - the US government (military expenditures on the order of almost $700billion for a point of reference).

Staying on that numbers game, Israel totes a lean 176,000 active troops at any one time versus Iran's 550,000. Money doesn't buy u everything but it certainly buys you the latest gagetry to blow your enemy away with. Maybe a good way to look at it is to compare the dollar per active troop in assessing an all out brawl between the two: Israel - $74k versus Iran's $13k - more than 550% difference. I know if I had to pick the military to join, I'd go with the one spending more money.

Given the recent slue of empty threats coming out of Iran as of late, I wouldn't be surprised by a sudden mass air strike spear headed by Israel (maybe even a little US involvement). Like the little kid in the school yard, eventually he can no longer take it and beats the piss out of the bully. It's not like Israel has really cared in the past about this sort of stuff anyway (see any number of disproportionate responses to aggressions by enemies of Israel - like the 'Gaza War' where ~1100 Palestinian's died versus 13 Israelis, 4 of which were friendly fire).

Pakistan is also in the process of shooting themselves in the foot by saying any act of aggression towards Iran will bring them into the mix. Oh no, we don't support terrorists (see the leaked UN memo on Pakistan's terror involvement or the countless CIA drone strikes for counter evidence) which makes our involvement in something like this more of a religious zeal than anything else. That's going to be an interesting situation when the US suddenly drops all aid to the country (actually $700million is already frozen by lawmakers since Pakistan can't get their act together). Will Pakistan stick to their guns and come to Iran's aid? Only time will tell.

If a fight does break out in the Middle East, it's not going to be pretty. Right now we're talking about Iran, Pakistan, Israel and through association the United States. Remember kiddies, the US is just after Iranian oil afterall...