US ground invasion begins at Kharg Island, then expands the invasion inland
Kharg Island stores 9% of Iran oil exports and is the most likely first target for a US ground operation; it is easy to take but hard to defend because the coastline and Zagros mountains force mission creep expanding the invasion inland
Pakistan enters the war via Saudi mutual defense pact opening an eastern front against Iran
Saudi Arabia declares war on Iran triggering a mutual defense pact with Pakistan; this opens an eastern front allowing the US to attack Iran from both sides; Pakistan also brings nuclear warheads into the conflict equation
Houthis close Bab el-Mandeb strait creating a second maritime chokepoint
Iran activates its Houthi proxies to close Bab el-Mandeb in addition to the Strait of Hormuz; two closed chokepoints completely isolate the GCC and cut off the world access to cheap energy forcing global powers to intervene militarily
South Korea and Japan are forced to enter the war to secure energy supplies
Closure of both maritime chokepoints cuts off East Asian access to cheap energy; Japan depends on 75% of oil from the Gulf and South Korea is similarly dependent; they are forced to intervene militarily to secure their energy supply
Republicans use wartime emergency powers to suspend or delay US elections
If the war goes badly Trump invokes emergency powers act to suspend the constitution and delay elections; combined with the Save America Act (voter ID requirements) and a possible national draft the Republicans aim to maintain power indefinitely regardless of war outcome
Iran undergoes dual radicalization — Shia eschatology and Persian exceptionalism
The war pushes both Iranian camps to extremes: the Islamic theocracy radicalizes into full Shia eschatology (12th Imam Mahdi returning to fight the Great Satan) while secular nationalists radicalize into Persian exceptionalism (Persia as the greatest civilization worth dying for); the key question is whether these two camps reconcile or trigger an Iranian civil war
The world moves toward nationalist theocratic order replacing the secular financial order
Iran becomes more theocratic and nationalistic; Israel abandons democracy and embraces theocracy (Jerusalem vision defeats Tel Aviv vision); America also abandons democracy and embraces theocracy; the global secular financial order is replaced by competing nationalist theocratic systems over the next 5 to 10 years