There are no easy solutions to the US-Iran conflict. But one thing is for sure. A war with Iran would be a mistake. Consider facts and statistics of the Iraq war:

Trust
Iraq war was justified with faulty statistics and manufactured intelligence. There was no connection between Iraq and al-Qaeda, no WMD and no threat of an Iraqi attack on the United States. (Wolfowitz Admits Iraq War Planned Two Days After 9-11)

Legality
Many in the United Nations reject the doctrine of pre-emptive warfare. They believe the United States entered the war illegally and without clear approval from the UN Security Council, which is required by international law.

Strategy
General Scowcroft, a former national security advisor who predicted much of the current Iraqi stalemate, predicts that U.S. intervention in Iraq will have to continue for decades in order to be successful.

Economics
A Pre-War in Iraq estimate in March 2003 suggested the war would cost roughly 80 billion dollars. As of October 2009, the actual costs are approaching 700 billion. (Transcript of a March 16, 2003 interview with Vice-President Dick Cheney by NBC’s Meet the Press)

Real Cost
The real cost to the US of the Iraq war, including hidden health costs of veterans, is likely to be between $1 trillion and $2 trillion, up to 10 times more than previously thought, according to a report written by a Nobel prize-winning economist and a Harvard budget expert. (Joseph Stiglitz, a Columbia University professor who won the Nobel prize for economics in 2001, and Linda Bilmes, a Harvard budget expert)

Duration
The same estimate stated the war would last roughly 2 years; we have currently been a war for over 7 years. Though troop levels have since been reduced, there is currently no end to the war in sight.

US Fatalities
To date, over 4,300 American troops have been killed in Iraq and over 30,000 have been injured. To contrast, over 1,000 more Americans have died in Iraq than in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Iraqi
Civilians deaths The Iraqi death toll during the war has been controversial, but many sources estimate that over 1 million Iraqis have been killed due to the ensuing violence of the Iraqi war.

Refugees
The United Nations estimates that there are about 4.5 million displaced Iraqis — more than half of them refugees — or about one in every six citizens.

Minorities
Religious minorities in Iraq have suffered from extreme violent acts since 2003, including the bombing of churches and murder of church leaders. The Mandaeans are one such group, once numbering as many as 50,000 in Iraq who have since been reduced to less than 5,000 due to inadequate protection from the American occupation forces or the Iraqi military/police.

Women and Children
Over 700,000 women in Iraq are widows as a result of the war. In December 2007, the Iraqi Government reported that there were 5 million orphans in Iraq, or half the country’s children. Rape and kidnapping of women on the streets of Baghdad and other major cities has also increased, especially due to the low-priority of these crimes for the Iraqi police force, which is undermanned and underfunded. (Five million orphans in Iraq)

Physical and Psychological
Toll Only 32% of Iraqis have access to safe drinking water. The pre-war child malnutrition rate was 19%, it has since risen to 28%. Between 60 and 70% of Iraqi children are suffering from psychological damage. (A Humanitarian Assessment of the War in Iraq)

Cultural Destruction
UNESCO reports that looters and arsonists in Iraq have not spared the cultural heritage sites of the country, causing untold damage to thousands of years worth of historical documents and artifacts. (War in Iraq and its consequences for Cultural Heritage)