Resolve the Iran Crisis: What Would You Do?

Pull out troops, in a quick fire fashion, unannounced. Describe it as "time for the local neighbors" of the United Nations community to invite diplomatic action through meaningful sanctions and plans to use other energy resources; decreasing oil by 50% each year and eventuating in use of alternative powered transportation. Thereby rendering the USA's reliance on foriegn oil to zero over the next three years. Provide tax breaks for solar, wind power, and other green alternatives. Then, focus on our own homeland to achieve healthcare for all and quit grandstanding when we have Katrina and other messes to clean up at home.

Iran imports a large part of its gas, ect. US & Britain Blockade the country and the infrastructure will collapse. If a month of blockade doesn't win compliance, take out the few refineries that Iran has.

Pull out our troops ASAP without any prior warning. Then cut of all economic engagement with Iraq or Iran and ANYONE who trades with them. ZERO, NONE, NIL dollars of ANY kind. Choke them off; isolate them and watch them wither. Fortify our resolve in defense of Isreal. Anyone who messes with them, who are in effect our forward base in the Middle East, takes the same pain as an attack on American soil. And as to terrorism on OUR shores. Four fold consequences to those we even think that did it. Let the Middle East live in the Middle Ages as they have for centuries and clearly prefer. We should have none of their lunacy. We should stick to our knitting "right here at home taking care of our own".

Before I jump on the bandwagon with an answer, I'd like to see if someone out there can think outside the box and come up with an answer of how Iran can come out on top out of all of this. I'd like someone to pick a faction in Iran and tell me how your faction will stay on top and bring Iran to greatness and regain the glory of the Persian Empire, or at least greater stature in the world community. Perhaps your stance is Taliban-like isolationism. Whatever. I've got my ideas on this, which I will share soon (I have a paper to write first), but I'd like someone else's take on this. C'mon. This should be fun. Know your enemy, and know yourself and in a thousand battles you will never be in peril! (Sun Tzu)

I doubt this will go well. The Iranians and everyone else sees how the US treats nuclear powers like Pakistan, China and North Korea vs how it treats non-nuclear powers like Iraq. So any country that is in conflict with the US would be smart to have nuclear weapons.

I think if the Iranians do not give up the hostages the UK and the US should make a huge air-strike on the Iranians. They should hit every nuclear site Iran has so matter how small. The attacks should destroy any nuclear technology or equipment they have. We should attack the personel too, kill every Iranian who has any nuclear weapons knowledge. At the sites they should hit the living quarters of the people working on and supporting nuclear weapons research. They should have a list of important scientist and researchers to kill.

With George Bush in charge they'll probably fuck up the attack, and not destroy everything. Rumseldian tight-wads who won't use the multi-million dollar bunker busters, etc. So the Iranians will continue working on how to figure out a way to kill us.

If the Iranians try to use their oil production to attack us, cutting off oil supplies, we should bomb all of Iran's Oil ports, which would destroy their ability to export oil. The Iranians have very few oil refineries, which should also be bombed. The Iranians depend on shipping their oil to 3rd countries who refine it and ship some of it back for the Iranian government to dole out. Taking out their export industry would cripple their economy and military.

The US should get out of Iraq as soon as it can. And we should be making a huge effort to get alternative energy in place. Switch grass, for biodiesel, solar, wind, etc. At least make incandescent bulbs illegal. They waste huge amounts of energy and generate heat which often causes the air-conditioner to run more. But with typical short-sightedness, George Bush and congress will continue to ignore it.

It is amazing how we continue to pump trillions of dollars into countries who's populations hate us and would kill us if given the chance. Without this oil money, the entire middle east would dry up and blow away. The money they have gotten so far has almost entirely been pissed away. No Arab country has used that money to build any kind of industry, outside of oil they have no economy to speak of.

Iranians are tougher, harder-playing folks than Americans. But if you don't believe that, at least accept that they are no less "macho" than we are. It should take only a moment's thought to realize that:

1. We are not going to talk Iran into giving up its nuclear ambitions. If North Korea or China -- or France or Britain for that matter -- urged the US to give up our nuclear weapons, what could they possibly say that would lead us to reply, "Oh, okay" ? "Diplomacy" on its own -- just talking and persuasion, is not going to accomplish a thing.

2. Iran is not going to cave in to economic pressures. Suppose the Arabs theatened to cut off all oil shipments to the U.S. if we did not give in to some extreme demand. Do you think we'd cave in? Surely not. We'd loudly say, "We refuse to submit to blackmail" or some such. Exactly how we'd respond would depend on many things. We might use counter-sanctions. We might send troops. We might make end up making some important concessions while getting token gestures in return, but we'd make sure we made a lot of noise and bluster and got SOMETHING that we could say showed that we had not just given in. I doubt the Iranians would do even that much.

So what are our real choices?

1. We could do nothing, or just do useless things like "diplomacy" and meaningless threats that amount to nothing, and let Iran acquire nuclear weapons. As they have repeatedly said that once they do this they will destroy Israel, I think we should work on the assumption that that is what they will do.

2. We could launch air and missile strikes to destroy the nuclear facilities. But the Iranians are not stupid: They have buried these facilities in hardened underground shelters. And I think it likely that they have facilities that we do not know about. So surgical strikes by themselves are an option, but we would have no way of being sure if they had succeeded. Even if they did, what if the Iranians rebuild? Would we do it all over again? I suppose we could, and see who gives up first.

3. We could invade, overthrow the government, and replace it with one friendly to us. This is surely achievable. Even if the new government was unstable, at least it would end the nuclear threat. It would probably be easier than the invasion of Iraq. Especially considering that a lot of the ongoing violence in Iraq is supported by Iran. Who will supply the Iranians? Militarily, this is probably the most realistic option. Realistically, it's hard to imagine the U.S. having the domestic political support to do this. Barring Iran backing a terrorist attack on U.S. soil before they have nukes, I don't think the U.S. could do this.

4. Which leaves the only viable strategy I can even think of: Support anti-government forces in Iran. Plenty or Iranians do not like their present government. If we gave some of these people money, weapons, and other forms of assistance, they might be able to overthrow the present regime for us. Advantages to the U.S.: Politically possible, and it would be Iranians and not Americans who would be putting their lives on the line. Disadvantages: Unreliable. The revolutionaries might lose. Oh, some will add, the revolutionaries might not be holy and pure democrats. I don't care. Why do Americans routinely talk as if the only possibility is that a foreign government that the U.S. supports must either be absolutely perfect, the most noble and wise and holy people who have ever lived, or the venture is a total failure. Isn't "better than the alternative" a positive development. I don't even care if they like us. They just have to believe that building nuclear weapons and launching terrorist attacks against the U.S. is a bad idea, whether that's from gratitude for our support, deep moral commitment, a desire to devote their resources to economic development, or whatever.