Posted by
JDComments on Thursday, December 21, 2006 12:34:13 PM
As last week's protest against the Iranian president by students [see
post ] and this week's election results indicate, there is an underlying discontent with the Ahmadinejad regime in Iran that offers the West the incentive and direction it needs to undermine it without recourse to military options.
The students of the country who have traditionally been the vanguard of societal change are taking heart from recent events to become more vocal and active in opposing the hardline Islamic regime which has smothered the few rights they had and has not provided the economic benefits they had been promised [see
article ].
As opposed to North Korea which is like a black hole in regard to information within it, we can clearly see that an authoritarian regime is having seriously problems there, and cracks are forming which we should be taking advantage of to remove one of the most destabilizing factors in the region.
Serious sanctions which inflict hardships on the people and not just a few guys working on the nuclear program could provide the leverage that is needed to tip the whole country into rebellion. Surgical penalties which seek to spare the citizens from discomfort are idiotic and self defeating. The Iranian people are responsible for Ahmadinejad being in power, and they have to pay a price until he is gone. Our sanctions should also hold out a carrot for their coming to their senses and ousting a maniac who threatens world peace.
If we refuse to seriously apply this kind of pressure we are leaving ourselves with no other option than full scale war, which I cannot see the UN , our allies, or anyone besides the Israelis supporting. And if the Dems are in power, it may very well be that the Israelis are on their own, which means a regional war which will endanger oil supplies and disrupt the world economy like nothing since the Great Depression. The stakes cannot be higher, and we may have to bet it all on a bunch of unhappy kids.