Regime will do whatever it takes to cling on to power – including sacrificing economies of other Gulf states
Brinkmanship, the ability to take a country to the edge of war without plunging it into the abyss, was the cornerstone of cold war diplomacy. But in our different, more unstable times – in which the line between state and non-state actors has blurred, and weapons of war have diffused – the world this week finally tipped over the edge, and suddenly it is in freefall.
The first six days of the Iran war cost the US $12.7bn (£9.5bn), but now the Pentagon is seeking as much as $200bn in military funding. Oil at $125 a barrel is no longer an Iranian, or Russian, fantasy. The crown jewel of Qatar, Ras Laffan – the world’s largest liquefied natural gas plant – may not reopen fully for five years, at a cost of $20bn a year. Other combustible oil depots in the Gulf, from Bahrain to Abu Dhabi, are exposed to Iran’s low-cost drones. Then add the human cost of 18,000 civilians injured and more than 3,000 killed in Iran alone.
The regime in Tehran, fighting for its survival, had long warned that if it were attacked it would retaliate by targeting American bases in the region. Yet Donald Trump, the US president, seemed surprised when it did so. Inured to decades of isolation and condemnation, Ali Khamenei, the late supreme leader, said at the beginning of February: “The Americans should know that if they start a war, this time it will be a regional war.”
Oh fuck off. The regime in Iran is horrible. It’s possible to think that and also think that the US starting this war is horrible.
It’s also possible to think that. And to be impressed with the strategic choices they’ve made so far. Like yeah fuck Iran, fuck the USA more though. But it’s fairly impressive how much forethought they’ve clearly given this scenario and how they’ve managed to neuter opposition mostly through economics, whether that be literally with shipping, or simply making the cost of continuing the war far higher for their opponents than themselves
Be that as it’s may, the US and Israeli factions are the devil. And Iran has a right to defend itself.
They have a right, they should, and they’re doing it very skillfully at the moment. You can be impressed by your enemies and you shouldn’t underestimate them
Iran is not my enemy, you know who the enemy is, within. The oligarchy. And Epstein is the key to raising and burning this mother fucker mark my words this isn’t going away.
Oh you’re correct of course don’t get me wrong, but you know, theocratic dictatorships, down with those too
The Guardian, spinning this as “regime survival” rather than, you know, Iranians trying to avoid being the victims of the same kind of Genocide as Palestinians (and, by the way, The Guarding was also busy for over a year spinning baby mass-murder there as Israeli self-defense), as if any other Iranian government would not have done exactly the same as this one when attacked by the US and Israel with the cooperation of all those Gulf states hosting American bases.
This article should’ve been posted in !ManufacturingConsent@lemmy.ml
