Romney, Santorum and Newt: How to Handle Iran

The main difference between republican job candidates and Obama on Iran is republicans are willing to defer to Netanyahu, who comes from the rightwing brand, as opposed to Obama, who prefers to engage Netanyahu and all parties.

The main Republican candidates, in contrast to Obama, seem more willing to defer to Israel's judgment. "Israel doesn't need public lectures about how to weigh decisions of war and peace," Romney said. "It needs our support." Newt Gingrich went even further, saying he'd give the Israelis whatever intelligence and equipment they'd need to go to war against Iran and wouldn't even expect them to tell the United States when they were ready to move. He would give them this reassurance: "That if an Israeli prime minister decides that he has to avoid the threat of a second Holocaust through pre-emptive measures, that I would require no advance notice." NPR

Seeing that if Israel launches an attack on Iran that we're automatically obligated to defend Israel, it seems like a good idea for the U.S. to have a say. It also seems prudent to participate diplomatically in perhaps the most volatile region of the world. Ultimately, the Middle East rift is an age-old battle of religions.
With Santorum (who's rabid about Iran and Islam) and perhaps Newt and maybe even Romney (Mormons also believe we're living in the end of days), there is this "end of days" belief in which conservatives believe that if they help the Jewish people, they can bring about the end of days, and therefore their own pleasure as they meet with Jesus. It's likely the main reason why they keep calling Obama a Muslim. Their logic being that if Obama is Muslim then he is the anti-Christ and surely a sign of end times. It all plays into this mass delusion.
It should be noted that Israelis don't want war either. The majority of Israelis prefer Obama over Romney or Santorum or Newt. 
Someday, we may need to stop Iran with military might, but other options should be explored first.

Many evangelical Christians believe that the end of days and the coming of the Messiah will center around Israel. And they interpret the foundation of the Jewish state as biblical prophecy becoming reality. It's a hugely emotional issue for the Christians who come. They believe it is their duty to help Jews expand their control over Judea and Samaria — the biblical names for what is now the Israeli-occupied West Bank. NPR

The other difference between republicans and Obama on Iran is republicans are hot to trot to use the military whenever and wherever and as often as possible. Republicans will question the department of education and giving more people access to healthcare, but they have no qualms about going to war. It seems to delight them. The reality is war is not wise or economically feasible. Ultimately, in NPR's look at how republicans would handle Iran, based on what they've said, there's mostly bluster and not a lot of substance.

Romney, writing in the Washington Post this week, said for example that to deal with Iran, he'd favor "restoring" the "regular presence" of U.S. aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf and the Eastern Mediterranean. Right now, the U.S. military requires at least one, and generally two, carriers in the Gulf and none in the Eastern Mediterranean NPR