Iran War Would Cost Trillions: Will the GOP Pay More Taxes for That?

While GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul is doing all he can in this election cycle to gin up a debate about U.S. foreign policy and a measure of the costs and benefits involved, the debate about Iran, China, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Israel's security has been taking place in a gravityless environment.

Mitt Romney's opening foreign-policy opus at the Citadel criticized President Obama for defense cuts and promised to boost America's defense commitments abroad, to boost military spending on hardware and ships in the Pacific--to do everything we have been doing but more.

Where are the dollars going to come from?

I am one who thinks that war with Iran is far off and in the near term unlikely--unless Israel makes a tremendous mistake by triggering and forcing a geostrategic move by the United States, a choice that could very well ultimately dismantle the close U.S.-Israel relationship (another alternative: Forces inside Iran that would benefit from a war cause an escalation that produces a potential nightmare in the Persian Gulf and region).

That said, fewer and fewer people agree with me--and various of the GOP presidential candidates seem to be competing with each other to tell U.S. citizens how quickly they would deploy American military and intelligence assets to undermine Iran's supreme leader and his government.

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