US officials who have charged the likely Iranian responses to any attack by Israel on its nuclear program believe that Iran would get revenge by launching missiles on Israel and terrorist-style attacks on United States civilian and military personnel overseas. While missile retaliation against Israel would be virtually certain, according to these assessments, Iran would also be likely to try to calibrate its response against American targets so as not to give the US a rationale for taking military action that could permanently cripple Tehran’s nuclear program. “Iranians have been pretty good masters of escalation control,” said Gen James E Cartwright, now retired, who as the top officer at Strategic Command and as vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff participated in war games involving both deterrence and retaliation on potential adversaries.
