Possible Ground War Between USA and Iran

I know that USA will most likely not attempt to invade Iran in the traditional sense and that US plans include only very limited use of ground troops inside Iran. Mostly in the form of special operatives used as spotters.

But has anyone concidered the fact that key Iraqi locations like Basra Kirkuk or even Baghdad are within 100 miles of the Iraq-Iran Border. If USAF and USN begin their 3-day-blitz operation and concetrate their power into decimating Iranian Command, Communications and Strategic assets, what will stop the Iranian armoured brigades from crossing the border and moving into Iraqi cities and straight into the US camps that are designed against insurgency not armoured attacks.

I assume that US Army has several mechanized groups near the border with orders to prevent any Iranian incursions across the border. But can they stop an attack where heavy Iranian armor slams against them and faster mechanised infantry units manouver around them with basically order to sweep as far west as they can and to destroy any soft coalition targets they encounter. Sure Iranian armored units that hit the US combat groups will be anhilated and eventually the mech. infantry that blasted west will be destroyed, but at what cost to US troops. Specially if Iranians after their sweep dig in to urban areas, thus preventing USA from using airsupport effectively?

This is all ofcourse based on the assumption that USAF will tie most of their tactical assets into hitting the high value targets. It only takes less than 2 hours to get from Border to Baghdad with a BMP-2, there is no way that USAF planes will be able to fly their sorties to Iran, get back, refuel and re-arm and get back to air within the window...

Personally I doubt the US will bomb Iran.
They will probably do a deal for Israel to do it

If Israel attacks Iran, they will not be able to even dent the Iranians ability to launch a conventional missile barrage against US troops in Iraq and it would most likely lead to a US air campaign, but without the initial blitz against the C3 and Nuclear assets...

But please give opinions about my theory from the first post, lets not turn this into a "to strike/not to strike" debate, there are enough threads concerning that. Rather i'd like to see discussion on possible ground war scenarios concerning US (or Israeli) strike against Iran.

i think your not to far off with your scenario my friend...i could def see iran gettin into an all out ground war with the iraq troops if we were to bomb them....as a matter a fact with ole dude (i forgot his name) but the iranian leader dude talkin bout u.s. wont attack and they will be sorry mite be thinken just that lol hey if they airstrick us were gonna go ahead and decimate as many of thier ground troops as we can......and like i said elsewere who's to say they wouldnt have backup...

You are forgetting the one air asset that will not participate in any ranged strikes. Desert + Tanks + A-10:

Boom

I think (or should I say I hope) that if Iran was massing large numbers of ground troops on the Iraqi border we would see that and would be prepared. The US has a lot of weapons that haven't been used much yet like cluster bombs. We have been fighting in Iraq with "kid gloves" on so far trying to minimize civilian casualties. I think that if something starts with Iran the gloves will come off and you will see much more devastating firepower used.

The one thing I do worry about is that Iran could probably lauch off a huge barrage of missiles toward our bases in Iraq before their launchers were destroyed. Some of these missiles would be shot down but at least some would get through and cause major damage and loss of life.

Right or wrong, I fully expect the US to hit Iran really hard very soon. Hopefully all of the weaons used by all sides will be conventional. If someone starts using chemical, biological or even nuclear weapons then things could get really ugly very very fast.