If Israel attacks Iran, will the US be able to stay out of the conflict?

There will be no attack.

The U.S. backs up Israel. Should Israel attack Afghanistan and Afghanistan retaliated the U.S. would back up Israel. It’d be another gain for western influence in the region. Perhaps not with military troops but with weaponry and such. However, it is super unlikely that Israel will attack. The news, if you don’t know it by now, is full of crap.

Its all about the currency, the Petrodollar, are leading export. Yes, unfortunately O will because he is owned, just like every past President.

US stayed out of the 1967 war, so yes, it could. But does it want to? That is between Halliburton, pro-war PACs, and Mr. Obama.

Depends on if Iran counterattacks Israel.

@auhsojsa, Afghanistan? You meant Iran?

And it is actually likely that Israel will attack Iran. The country is currently led by right-wing warmongers. They’ve explicitly said they will probably attack Iran within several months.

And this situation has jack shit to do with oil. Believe it or not, shouting the word “oil” over and over does not make you look smart in your grasp of geopolitical events. If Iran counterattacks Israel’s strike by closing off the straight of Hormuz and then we intervene, then you might have a point about oil.

The US will protect Israel, but stay out of the war.
If the US entered the war, many other muslim countries would jump in.

If Israel attacks it’s on like donkey kong.

Israel is much more likely to use sabotage or sneaky attacks rather than to commit war. They could keep on assassinating all the folks who make the bombs. Or they might just smuggle a bomb into Tehran. Although that would probably be pretty traceable. But they already killed one Iranian nuclear scientist. Why not more?

“But they already killed one Iranian nuclear scientist.”

More like four.

It would be very risky for Israel to wage war in Iran, and also rather unlikely. It has issued these threats before, but hasn’t acted upon them directly (at least recently). If it went ahead and did, though, it is very possible that the US could stay out of it. It would probably just impose even harsher sanctions and embargoes than the ones already implemented. Also, Israel waging war on Iran could potentially initiate a mass conflict in a region that strongly opposes Western influences. The possibility of such a conflict would probably deter the US from getting too deeply involved.

@Qingu Ah! Yes, Iran rather. I always get Persian states mixed up :P

Well you kinda have to define “attacks”. A land invasion or some random bombs from planes? I wouldn’t be surprised at a few air strikes but a full on invasion of Iran would be suicide by Israel. We don’t need to back them if they bomb, we already sold them the planes and bombs.

Going Iraq on them is so fucking stupid I bet is planned for but will never happen.

I also think such an attack is highly unlikely. But this is an ‘if’ question so it’s fair to contemplate what this scenario could mean.

In my opinion Iran will think that the US has approved such an attack otherwise Israel wouldn’t do it. Therefore their response will affect the US as well. And as a consequence all NATO countries. Most likely Iran will attempt to stop oil shipments in the strait of hormuz area. This will hurt the entire world financial system and world economy. I’m not sure whether Iran will actually use one of its longer range missiles.

Iran isn’t suicidal. We’ve already called their bluff on the straight of Hormuz. They’re not going to attempt to close it off since, among other reasons, that would adversely affect China and Russia, the only two major countries that resemble anything like Iranian allies on the world stage.

I could definitely see Iran lobbing tons of missiles against Israel in response to airstrikes on nuclear plants, especially if those airstrikes kill a lot of people. The Iranian public would also probably unify around the current regime, and despise America even more, even if America has nothing to do with the airstrikes. (The nuclear program was even more popular with Mousavi’s “green revolution” than with Ahmadinejad.)

The truly horrifying thing is that Netanyahu and company are operating under the delusion that the opposite is true—that Iran is bluffing in their threats of counterattacks and that in the face of an Israeli attack the Iranian populace will want to give up the nuclear program and depose their dictator. Israel is run by the same sort of right-wing neoconservative nutjobs who pre-emptively waged war on Iraq, thought a “shock and awe” campaign would cow the Iraqi resistance, and that the Iraqis would greet american soldiers as liberators.

Yep, the greatest danger to the Israeli people actually comes from Netanyahu.

and unfortunately, he is the only one willing to protect his people.

no, they will engage, this is in their best interest for their goal they have wanted to achieve for decades-don’t let the voters get any wiser though!