David F Mayer said:

"The bulk of the people are trying to get out from under them. I hope that these bozos are overthrown before Israel nukes them."

Everything that I've read about Iran indicates that the mullahs are solidly in the driver's seat and one step ahead of any counter-revolution. I believe the Iranian ballistic missile and nuclear weapons capability will be fully operational before the mullah's rule naturally expires (unless an outsider destroys that capability before hand).

Israel has a real problem on its hands. I suspect the only way the Israelis could defeat the Iranian nuclear / ballistic missile program would be through preemptive nuclear assault using penetrator warheads launched by ballistic missiles. I don't think the Israeli's are up to that. I suspect their only practical option is to take one nuclear hit from the Iranians (probably a terrorist attack through Hezboallah) and then wipe out all of Iran with a massive counter-assault. I don't believe the United States will intervene with conventional weapons due to our commitment with Iraq. A logical counter response by the Iranians to an American attack on their nuclear capability would be a major military attack against Iraq. The Iranians are already waging a low level war against the U.S. through support of Muqtada al-Sadr, harboring al Qeada leaders and massive counterfeiting of American money, etc. They will openly attack an American client (Iraq) if we directly attack their nuclear weapon's facilities. From a real politic / hard ball perspective, it's better to let the Israelis do the diry work even though the Israelis may lose a city as a result.

Gary