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Military threats and sabre-rattling rhetoric have littered dialogue between the two nations in recent months with Iran’s foreign minister warning the US just hours ago it “cannot expect to stay safe” while Donald Trump counter-warned any conflict would be “the end of Iran”. But military experts on both sides of the potential conflict know that despite a massive firepower advantage a USA victory is far from certain, especially accordng to one former ranking US Air Force strategist who now lives on the Straits of Hormuz.

Tehran tells America 'you can't do anything' if we want atomic bomb

And here’s why – he writes:

1. Iran is a REALLY BIG COUNTRY – it is 3–4 times larger than Iraq, with a much larger population.

2. The terrain is more like Afghanistan, ringed with mountains, not deserts. It isn’t a good place for tanks to run amok.

3. Worse, the Strait of Hormuz is REALLY narrow, especially the shipping channel. Nearly all of it can be fired upon from Iran with short-range missiles or can be attacked from shore with small boats. There is NO WAY to try to sail tankers out during war times.

4. Iran is right – they probably CAN block the Strait in the event of war. No business wants to come under missile attack while in transit.

President Trump has told acting Defence Secretary Patrick Shanahan that he does not want war with Iran but his hawkish national security advisor John Bolton is championing an aggressive military posture against Iran – which has long challenged the international community with thinly veiled desire to become a nuclear power.