Replies

FYI
The emperor may not be naked, but he is wearing only a thong.
/distrubing image

Iran Oil Revenue Quickly Drying Up, Analysis Says
Middle East Transparent / AP ^ | 12/26/06

http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1759390/posts
Posted on 12/28/2006 9:48:38 AM CST by Valin

Iran is suffering a staggering decline in revenue from its oil exports, and if the trend continues income could virtually disappear by 2015, according to an analysis published yesterday in a journal of the National Academy of Sciences.

Iran's economic woes could make the country unstable and vulnerable, with its oil industry crippled, Roger Stern, an economic geographer at Johns Hopkins University, said in the report and in an interview.
(snip)

Iran: Before it's Too Late
Asharq Al-Awsat ^ | 12/29/06 | Ahmed Al-Rabei

http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1759389/posts
Posted on 12/28/2006 9:48:21 AM CST by Valin

With the current escalation regarding the Iranian nuclear crisis, I remembered the famous story about one political analyst who wrote on the subject of the inevitable collapse of the former Soviet Union. Many responded to his research with the following questions: did you not see the massive military parades in Red Square in Moscow? Did you not see the large-scale missiles and are you unaware of how many nuclear warheads belong to the Soviet Union? How can a continent with so much military power collapse under the rule of an iron-strong political party.

The answers were simple. The analyst stated that he had been to Moscow and had seen the line-up of soldiers and officers and knew the details of the huge military force, however this had no relation to his prediction of the collapse of the Soviet Union. He said, “I was certain of this great nations’ bleak future when I saw long queues of Russians standing for hours to get a loaf of bread or a piece of meat!”
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