With respect to 1, there is no way the US is going to shoot down Israeli planes (and I don't think the Iraqis have the capacity to do so). That's not participation; that's your bluff being called.
--- On Tue, 6/9/09, Itamar Shtull-Trauring <itamar at itamarst.org> wrote:
>
> 1. Israel would have to send bombers across Iraqi airspace,
> which is
> controlled by the US.
>
> 2. A single bombing run would be insufficient: the Iranians
> have spread
> out their nuclear development sites, so a number of bombing
> runs would
> be necessary. So unless those could be done very quickly,
> Iran would
> have time to respond in ways that would make other
> countries feel the
> pain (e.g. impede oil tanker traffic) in an attempt to
> bring indirect
> pressure on Israel to stop half-way.
>
> 3. In general, Iran could respond in ways that piss off
> large parts of
> the world. Israel would need the US to back it up.
>
>
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