We could be hours away from seeing a joint allied attack on Iranian assets to retaliate for the attack on the refineries in Saudi Arabia. The big question they are dealing with is: how big of an attack should it be? If they are too weak it may not deter Iran. If it is too big there may be a political backlash, albeit not that much. In my opinion, they have to make not only a token attack on similar industries in Iran, they must also take out their offensive missiles that would hit US bases and Israel. However, that option will require a massive co-ordination from several locations and will be more than a one hour event. My guess is that Israel will also be involved since they would be the next target anyway. The big question is, how many hidden assets does Iran have that can be triggered before the US and allies can hit them?

Once this process begins, things will start moving at a quick pace until Iran pushes back from the table and calls it quits for the day. However, if Iran's retaliation was substantial, the allies will not back off from another attack which could be many times larger than the initial attack. That could in turn trigger sleeper cells in Europe and the US to make what they call "non-asymmetric, terrorist attacks" on major cities and infrastructures. At no time in history has the world been so interconnected, that such a response was possible around the world at nearly the same time.

George Eaton