Unlike many of these other states in the region (Iraq, Israel, Pakistan, Egypt), Iran has not attacked any of its neighbours. The reason there is such a furore about Iran getting nuclear weapons isn't because they think Iran will start attacking its neighbours, its because they will then become untouchable like North Korea are, and so it removes the option for the US to attack it when it becomes politically opportune to do so. They have wanted an attack on Iran for a long time because Iran does have a significant portion of oil reserves which are going to become more and more strategically important as oil supplies run out. Up until 1979 US owned companies owned about 50% of the Iranian oil industry during the Shah's era, but Khomeinei put an end to all that.

An attack on Iran in the short term is unlikely because the US has its hands full in Afghanistan and Iraq and doesn't have the spare capacity to launch what would be a far more complicated military operation than those were due to the size and difficult geography of Iran. A war on Iran isn't something which could be done half measures, it would have to be all or nothing, because the day after they first launched air strikes on Iran, the Iranians would respond by proxy through Hezbollah launching rockets (probably including chemical weapons) into heavily populated civilian areas in Israel. Israel would no doubt react rapidly and start bombing Iran itself, and this would put the governments of Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia in a difficult position, they wouldn't support Iran but within their countries lots of people would and they would risk being overthrown. If a non-friendly government came to power in Saudi Arabia and turned the oil taps off to the US then the country would grind to a halt, so the US would have to be in a position to rapidly take control of the whole Middle East and assure the stability of all friendly governments.

War on Iran is too difficult at the moment whilst Afghanistan is still going on, hence a swift exit strategy is needed to free up military resources. If they wait too long then there will be added problems as China and Russia are starting to build up business interests in Iran and it becomes a more dicey situation if a US attack on Iran represents a threat to Chinese and Russian interests.

As I said the Americans will not attack Iran for reasons we both said - in addition the "War on Terror" banner is wearing a bit thin around the world and with the disappearance of Presidents Bush (both) & Blair from the world scene some of the West's proponents of aggression are taken from the scene. Obama and Cameron have enough issues on their respective plates than to launch further wars on nations who would respond with terror attacks and guerrilla tactics...

Sally, Canada has the world's 2nd largest oil reserves after Saudi, and ahead of Iraq, Kuwait and Iran.

Can we expect a US naval assault across Lake Michigan and ground assault through North Dakota any time soon?

In closing some stats have the US as running out of known reserves in 8 years time.

The Americans dont need to launch an "Assualt" the Canadians are doing a fine job.....all they have to do to exctract these tars sands containing the oil is to rip up a few forests and turf off some indigenous people.....

Don't forget the Yanks have deployed millitary assets in Cuba, El Salvador, Cambodia, Iran, Panama, Philippines, Liberia, Haiti, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Côte d'Ivoire, Georgia, Djibouti, Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Pakistan, to name a few.

Big bullies.

Defender of the Free....

Exactly. They show the exact same imperialism as we did in 1750-1947.

Hardly - the British Empire was formed out of greed & lack of knowledge of local peoples. The USA Empire is formed out of greed & lack of care of local peoples.

A lot of empires countries did very well from the British Empire and still do from it's legacy. - Language, democracy, legal system, railways, trade revenues, commonwealth, protectorates etc. It wasn't all bad.

Violence is not the answer! Woo Pacifism!

lets hope one dont knock the other out the world cup that could just push them to far lol

Don't joke about it - I remember Honduras & El Salvador going to war over the result of a World Cup Qualifier...

NK never torpedoed no ship, proberley a black ops done by the CIA or Mossad. Its an old trick, americans have done it many times and so have the British, especially in ireland in the 70s.

Anyway, this Kim jong part2 dont seem too bad chap. any bloke who can hit 5 holes-in 1 on his 1st gme of golf, watches pornography, listens to Elvis and wears p[latform shoes would get my vote.