Iran Crazy

So I was reading this article, bemoaning the rhetoric that comes from the Iranian leadership, when I read the following paragraphs:


"Any Iranian military or commercial vessel easily could get right outside the U.S. coastline and in less than 60 seconds fire a ballistic missile armed with a nuclear payload and detonate it over U.S. skies in an electromagnetic attack that would plunge America back into the 18th century.

Studies show within just one year after such an attack, two-thirds of Americans would cease to exist and the rest would live under dire conditions."

That's a little dire. Are they really that sneaky? The Soviet Union had submarines everywhere and I could see that being a likely scenario, but Iran? Also, what "studies"? Starting any kind of conventional war or greater with America would be bad news for Iran. A good portion of our Cold War contingencies are still operational, I would guess, and therefore beyond the scope of Iran's capability to cripple us beyond retaliation. In such an unlikely scenario, they would be calling the President's bluff on a nuclear scale, risking their whole country becoming a radioactive glass sea.