Will the war of words between the United States and Iran remain just the hurling of threats and insults back and forth, or will the war actually heat up. This could happen through proxies as each side supported different belligerents in a hot war. Or it could be the real thing where the militaries of the US and Iran engaged in actual combat.
There should be no doubt that the US can wipe Iran off the map if it so desired. This might be subjected to doubt given that we have not subdued Iraq, and Iran is a much more powerful military force than Iraq. But that is a faulty comparison. If our desire were to wipe out Iraq, that would have been done a long time ago. Our goals in Iraq are to see a stable nation-state emerge, not to reduce the population of Iraq to zero.
Iran represents a different problem from Iraq as examined on page two.

You can’t handle us This is one of the reasons they want to take our guns away so they can walk right in without a fight Wake up liberals you’ll be the first to go
I got a bunch of ammo
I don’t want to wait until they wake up! Let’s find them and destroy them in their sleep!
And that is a surprise? I think not
What good will your sleeper cells do you after you’ve been nuked into a salt mine.
Thanks Deomcrats
The big cell is called “The DNC”.
We have sleeper cells also, they’re called “Veterans” already trained for war fare and experienced. Oh I forgot, most of us are well armed.
To whom is your comment directed?
We’re just waiting, your not going to like what happens, but we will!