If the economy collapses, the mullahs will go the way of Soviets. The country will implode.
Ahmadinejad doesn't give a hoot in Hell about public opinion, he's in charge, he has a political base, and the mullahs are happy to have him leading the way while they hide and stay out of sight.
The people know who runs the country. It is not a matter of public opinion but public action. The political base erodes quickly once the society starts to fail. The Shah found that out.
Iran is not a capitalist democracy in the sense of a Western nation, if the Iranian people suffer hardship, they are told to bite the bullet, shut up, or they get a visit from the mullah's thugs in the dead of the night. That's the reality of what's happening 'on the ground' in Iran, and guess what?
LOL. The economic difficulties are not only being reported by Hardnet.com. Iran is not that kind of police state. There have been plenty of demonstrations and opposition. The bazaaris have long been considered the sine qua non of the regime's hold on power and still are. They were part of the original coalition along with the mullahs, intelligentsia and exiles that took down the Shah. Khomeini hijacked the Iranian Revolution in much the same way that Lenin did. The current government is not that secure and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei worsening health will set off a battle of succession, which may result in a battle between Rafsanjani and Ahmadinejad.
Did you somehow miss 9/11 when 19 Islamic terrorists led the opening attack against US?!? Perhaps you need to check out following passages from the Quran:
Nuking Qom is not the solution. You are madder than a March hare.
Lookee here bud, America's goal is not to win some global popularity contest because we desperately need to be liked, America's goal is (or should be!) to defend our way of life, and that way of life is threatened by Islamofascism, and at this point in time, Iran is leading the charge.
It has nothing to do with winning a global popularity contest. Hell, we wouldn't have any domestic support from the American people to launch a pre-emptive NUCLEAR ATTACK against Iran. What you are suggesting will never happen. We have to deal with the real world and not the world of of fantasy you seem to live in.
The mullahs and Ahmadinejad don't care.
Don't believe that nonsense. These people want survive. They convince the other poor fools including women and children to strap bombs on to themselves and sacrifice for the faith. You can bet that they won't nor will their children.
as Podhoretz pointed out, one of their most recent tests of Western resolve was the taking of those UK sailors hostage, and Britain showed itself to be utterly neutered and powerless. You think that's a good thing?
I'll leave that up to the UK to decide. The British Navy is going down to 25 capital ships. They really don't have the means to take on Iran in Iran. The capture of the Brits was probably pushed by the RG who wanted one of their agents back who was being held in Iraq. He was released just before the UK sailors were.
Someone who lived in Germany from 1937 until 1939 might have made the same statement, and while Germany did indeed become our ally, it wasn't until after the whole damn country was flattened by strategic bombing.
Iran isn't Nazi Germany. It has no ability to project power on a regional basis let alone a global level. It couldn't defeat the Iraqis in their 8 year war. Their military is a joke. Again, the only real danger they pose is giving WMD to non-state actor terrorists and making it difficult for us to trace back the source of the weapons so we can retaliate. It also gives them some ability to bully the region, but we will be there to counter it. The Iranian government views nuclear weapons as an insurance policy against our involvement in their internal affairs.
Your faith in covert operations is misplaced. The stakes are too high to trust the CIA to do in Iran what they helped to accomplish in 1953. In this case, lightning will NOT strike twice. I say fuel up the B-1s and B-2s.
Dream on Captain of the keyboard. You have the luxury of being Walter Mitty. The rest of us have to deal with reality.
Your increasing use of ad hominems demonstrate that the foundations of your positions rest on shifting sands.
For all of your personal knowledge of Iran, you fail to recognize the one critical factor which led to the fall of the Shah, and that was Jimmy Carter stabbing him in the back, that is established historical fact.
The similarities between Iran and Nazi Germany are not the stuff of bravado or exaggeration, ask Benjamin Netanyahu, he’s in a far better position to explain it to you.
You are attempting to view the Iranian problem much the way that Carter did, without considering the long term ramifications of failing to act when appropriate.
As for nuking Qom, I maintain it is a legitimate target that would provide a taste of REAL terror for the Islamofanatic nutjobs who are all for terrorizing we infidels (that’s you and me bub), but have no idea of what the United States is capable of unleashing upon them.
And what we have should have been unleashed, and long before Iran had thousands of centrifuges spinning on their way to the goal of fully weaponized nuclear material.
Your inability to see reality is (as I see it) based upon your own personal experience in Iran, and you quite frankly don’t want to see a place you used to live in become a place of desolation and destruction and I can understand that, but I have resigned myself long ago to the possibility that the place where I grew up (suburban Maryland outside D.C.) may well cease to exist some day if Islamofascist terrorists successfully manage to get a nuke into the area and set it off as they would love to do.
But nevertheless, you can sneer about me being ‘Walter Mitty’ but in your case I would be more concerned about how the spirit of Neville Chamberlain seems to be occupying more and more of your thoughts.
You want to wait. I say the time for waiting was over long ago. Iran is an increasing threat to both regional and global stability and you damn well know it.
Waiting is no longer the responsible choice, but you may well get your way because I too have doubts that the Bush Administration has the hair left to do what has to be done.