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War with the Ayatollah?
It seems there is something in the news daily explaining to us why we should not like the Iranis very much. It reminds me of Syria. The “news” barrage goes on for months or years until we dislike folks enough to start shooting. It reminds me of Iraq and Afghanistan and Panama and…
Iran says if we keep applying economic pressure via sanctions, they will block off the Strait of Hormuz through which 20 percent of the world’s oil flows in tankers. Someone has gone as far as to bomb five of said tankers. We say Iran is developing WMD’s; of course we also said Iraq already had WMD’s as we stormed in to invade them in 2002. Turns out they had weapons of not-enough-destruction-to-win against the overwhelming force of the U.S.A. Neither does Iran, so they will likely strut and flex muscles and brag about their toughness rather than start a shooting war. Will that be good enough for us…or are we at a spot where we need another war to infuse the U.S. economy with another shot of cash? The drone incident ups the ante.
The time to war with the Ayatollah of Rock and Rolla was when he and his cohorts kidnapped and imprisoned American diplomats and others for 444 days back in 1979 under the Jimmeh Cawwtah administration. For those too young to remember, that one ended the very day Carter left and President Reagan took office, knowing that glowing-in-the-dark was not far behind.
I’m not so sure about now. If Iran tries to block off the Strait, should we let them, then sell our own U.S. oil into the world market at the new higher prices, thus supplanting the Middle East as the first string petroleum exporter—or should we blow the hell out of them?
Bruce Bateman
Tanapag, Saipan
