Iran: Economic Warfare Shall Do the Trick

Don't Let Him Win

This is a happy opportunity for the West. Oil has fallen from a high of $140 to near $40 a barrel. Iraq is settling down and Iraqis we'll see American's gone by 2011. Israel's media campaign to really show what the Iranian military is up to is working all too well. Also, US sanctions against Iran seem to be effective too.





The key factor in this is oil. Iran uses oil to subsidize everything. All their industries. Iran can't even finance their own foreign trade without oil or even their general economy for the 70 million people that live there. 80% of Iran's exports consist of oil and a recession far greater than the one in the West is making the Iranian Islamic regime skittish.





Their theocratic government wishes to crack down on 'immoral' slights in their society such as women dressing procatively (even though that woman may look like she's attending a funeral), alcohol comsumption (it's a shame too, Persian culture likes wine), people who don't pray and bloggers. Especially bloggers. Despotic regimes hate bloggers like poison. It counteracts their propaganda machine with the ultimate tool of freedom: the internet.





I don't know about you but heavily enforced Islam seems to strange local cultures. Berbers in North Africa were forced from a matrinileal society to a patriarchy. Egyptians couldn't drink their beer anymore which they've consumed for more than 3000 years making the famous Egyptian paunch belly disappear. Finally Persian poetry, art, wine, literature, music all have but disappear. That's the real crime. Persian culture has lived in 5 different Persian Empire and it had endured it all. The Greeks, the Romans, the Mongols, Tamerlane. Their own people killed it. Now all they have is rice with lamb and raisins. Pitiful.





When smart Iranians complain about it their government attempts to crack down on it. It's just a step lower on the despot ladder from Mugabe. Their young MTV generation sees this and hates this. Especially the metrosexual Iranian males and they're a lot of them in Tehran and Ishfahan if not the religious city of Qom.





If Obama talks to them, he's pretty much legitimizing their regime. A regime that aids Hamas and Hezbollah and Shia insurgents in Iraq. One that threatens to destroy Israel and gets help from North Korea ( among the craziest regimes on Earth but now untouchable thanks to their underground nukes). Obama should put stress on the regime.





1) Lower the price of oil more. After all, it helps the US economy and it ruins Iran's economy.


2) Help the Kurdish and Balochi rebels in Iran. Weakening the Iranian regime with ethnic proxies is nothing new.


3) Get Turkey to help you out somehow. Having Turkey full on board would help the US out a lot.


4) More MTV for the masses. The masses of urban Iranians. Ahmadinejad has no support amongst the urban hip populace but he has a lot of support in the countryside. Still, weakening his and the Ayatollah's legitimacy to rule is key.


5) In case they actually attack Israel, you need your carriers to launch a quick attack on Iranian military facilities. No invasion is necessary, and even if you did you can't hold a country with 3 times the people of Iraq and 3 times the land area with a populace in the countryside which hates your guts. Again, it justs strengthens your enemies.


6) Help Israel prepare itself from an attack by the Iranian proxies Hamas and Hezbollah. Israel lost the Summer War in 2006, don't let it lose another one.





One day, I hope to sip Persian wine, listening to poetry by Ferdowsi or Rum while eating lamb with rice and raisins and a hint of curry. That's my ideal Iran. What's yours?