Quote (ownyaah @ 20 Oct 2022 23:16)
There is a very big fact you are missing, the majority of Iranians are Persians, of which many are loyal to the gov. Essentially US would be fighting something like 55-65% of the population, in comparison to iraq where sunnis were like 20% (the entire north (20%) was strongly anti-saddam, and the south (60%) was anti/indifferent). The iranian army wouldn't fall apart so easily because a lot of it would fight for the cause, rather than take their gun home.
I agree, which is another point on my list of reasons why an invasion of Iran would be a much more difficult and risky undertaking than invading Iraq ever was.
Still, the US military was so far ahead in 2003 (and probably still is today) that they would have been able to pull it off. But unlike Iraq, which required something like 10% of their capabilities, an invasion of Iran would take something like 50-60% of the capabilities of the entire US military. (Bombing it into the ground from afar would of course be easier, but that's barbaric and not an actual, long-term solution.)