Extreme Sports in Iran
Wretchard at the Belmont Club is taking note of the crisis in Iran. His summation:
My own guess is that US -- and Israeli --policy towards Iran is constrained by the knowledge that the only lasting way to keep the Bomb from extremist Mullahs isn't an air strike, but regime change. If the objective is to keep Iran from obtaining weapons of mass destruction, air strikes, however effective, can only delay the process of acquisition. But only regime change, either through an internal upheaval or an outright invasion, can put an end to the ambitions of the Mullahcracy in Teheran.
My own feeling is that we will not accomplish much against Iran because we don't have the political will. I think, however, that the youth of Iran might have that will, but are feeling apathetic. They are having no success at loosening the restraints imposed by the Mullahs, and they are having no fun.
My recommendation to them: Try streaking. Hit them where it hurts -- in their puritanical guts. The spectacle of naked men and women running together past some sober-sided rabble-rouser will leave the mullahs feeling impotent rage. I suspect it would be a very dangerous kind of fun, but fun nonetheless. Just - do - not - get - caught!
1/14/2006 3:30 AM
posted by jj mollo @ 1/14/2006 03:34:00 AM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Fun? Mullahs? mutually exclusive terms I think. I suspect if Muhammed ever meet that bunch, he would be kicking their collective asses all the way to Mecca
You make a good point, JJ. And you, too, Mallory. (Muhammed had his share of fun, maybe too much!)
What the West needs is a foreign policy that separates Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons from Iran's dictatorship. The nuclear program is popular in Iran, even among the young. The dictatorship is not.
But as long as our official statements dwell on mullahs with nukes, the unpopular is sugar-coated by the popular.
This is another reason I believe the United States should back away from the Iranian nuclear problem (the first reason being that the U.S. is busy elsewhere). Let the Europeans handle it.
Every time the U.S. opens its official mouth about Iran's nuclear program, the Iranian theocracy connects the U.S. to Israel and it connects the nukes to destroying Israel. Unfortunately, those points make the dictatorship more popular.
The Europeans should stay on the anti-nuclear proliferation track. The U.S. should hold to the democratization track. This way, the mullahs gain no points for having nukes, and the day of Iran's freedom comes closer.
It would be best to keep Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. But if a nuclear Iran were free, it would hardly be a problem.
I'm serious about the streaking. That kind of psychological warfare is how the boomers got the US out of Vietnam. I'm not sure it was the right thing, but the tactics were effective. I think the key is empowering the secular-minded youth, who are currently in a position where they don't like the Mullahs, but they don't know what to do about it.
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