Iran's Flag

[Marcello]

"I'm not sure about the Gulf War, since Iraq would have remained a sworn enemy led by bad ole Hussein and his famously rational decisions"

The Gulf War was largely a byproduct of the Iran Iraq war; Saddam ended the war with the most powerful army in the area and a bottomless pool of red ink. Seizing an oil rich emirate they had territorial claims on seemed a decent way out of the conudrum. Take away this and add a powerful neighbor armed to the teeth and the whole thing suddenly becomes a lot less attractive.

[cbreedon]

Interesting take on Afghanistan PlasmaKrab. I hadn't thought of that. The invasion was in December 1979 and the Shah was left in February. Maybe one of the factors was that the Soviets felt "Western" weakness in the region. Without that invasion, we may not have had Osama and the Taliban... I had never thought on how much history of the region was affected by the Iranian Revolution.

[PlasmaKrab]

I had never thought on how much history of the region was affected by the Iranian Revolution.

That's what Iranian exiles keep telling me

Take the Afghanistan story with a grain of salt, but I think a strong presence of pro-western forces just next door would have been a showstopper for the Soviets. As I said, they had a history of cross-border provocations and fly-overs with pre-revolution Iran.
Not 100% certain it would have stopped them though, after all China next door didn't prevent the US from intervening in Vietnam. Maybe more limited support for the communist Afghan regime?

OTOH the Taliban have not much to do with the Soviets. Remember Afghanistan was in a permanent state of near civil war long before the Soviet intervention. Had they not invaded, the Afghan government would probably have crumbled on itself or been overthrown anyway, and event would have ensued much like they did IRL, maybe at a slower pace.

[mr_clark]

Had the Soviets not invaded the "Communist" government's collaps by the warlords would have lead to a similar situation as now. Maybe Pakistan or the Shah would have seen it fit for including some poor warlord's or others territory into their own.
The question is how long the Shah's government would have in any way had a chance of sustainability anyways. He was a brutal dictator, and not very well loved by his people. One has to remember that the "Islamic Revolution" only took over after a mainly non religious revolt had the Shah fleeing already, the movement having achieved many democratic successes in 1977-1978. Besides he was already exiled in 1951 for a first time, and only returned after an US supported coup d'état in 1953...

[PlasmaKrab]

Sources differ on all that I'm not sure we will ever get the whole story.

I won't start a debate over whether the revolution was justified or supported by the people or anything. That's not what we are here for, and I guess we're off-topic enough as it is...

I agree that there are chances the Afghan history wouldn't have changed that much though. Now the whole idea of the whole off-topic debate is what the Iranian OOB would have looked like, had the revolution not happened. Not sure that "revolution happens the next year" is the most constructive answer. Not that I mean it couldn't have happened, of course.

I mean no offense here, but bear in mind that if we start discussing the hows and whys of the revolution, we'll end up in a few weeks and ten pages waaaay besides the original point of adding the pre-revolution Persian flag to the game.

Regards,

Plasma

[mr_clark]

hmm ghood point Plasma, I got carried away.

I think a monarchic Iran would be equiped with the most modern US equipment today. I guess the US shift towards Saudi Arabia wouldn't have happened so much, so maybe we would see less modern US equipment there.
By today Iran would have the M1A2 as their main battle tank, surely they would have bought Bradley or Warrior as IFV to suplement this force.
For air forces we'd at least see modern Block F-16s, maybe even some F-15s as replacements for the F-14 as an interceptor. With Iran's oil wealth and good relations to the US they might even be a partner in the F-35 program.

[PlasmaKrab]

Good point on Saudi Arabia, it would be interesting if they had kept a more open (non-aligned) purchasing line (spell O-S-O-R-I-O for me... ).

I'm not sure Imperial Iran would have got so much 100% US hardware, they also had a number of European/unaligned suppliers. Remember they were about to get about 1000 Challenger tanks, which would remain in line for some time. A Magach-like upgrade for their old Pattons would be interesting.

Bradleys are a thought, I think they were on to LAV-25s in any case, and some systems are common. In the 90s CFE-treaty context, it would be interesting to figure if they could get large enough quantities of surplus Leopard-2s in good conditions, for the first good Desert Leopard...

Modern F-16s no doubt, a replacement for the F-14 is a good question. Integrated defense with top-notch Patriots and assorted radars I'd say at first.