LevinK,

It is obviously NOT there for roadside bombers.

Remember last fall when Iran ordered three of their divisions to be ready to move into Iraq in the event of an American attack on Iran. They may decide not to that in the event of an American attack, but the military wants that asset.

So you take the war with Iran as granted? We'd all better head for the mountains then.

The AC-130 against insurgents was not my statement:

The U.S. Air Force has begun moving heavily armed AC-130 airplanes -- the lethal "flying gunships" of the Vietnam War -- to a base in Iraq as commanders search for new tools to counter the Iraqi resistance
LevinK,

No, I do not take war with Iran as inevitable, even if we think it will only be for 2-3 days. I think the USA will stand down and Israel will do the bombing out of a sense of self-preservation, but the repercussions will spill over into cutting off Persian Gulf oil for a period of time.

But we want those big planes there as insurance.

The USA military has a lot of power, even if we do not talk about Nukes, though France does.