Jackson50 said:
gomezc said:
He likes to talk tough and push buttons, but in reality what he says doesn't really matter as most countries continue to ignore what he has to say. He likes to talk shit and brag about how mighty his nation is but in reality they have about as much power as Iraq had before we invaded them, military wise. |
Iran and pre-invasion Iraq are not comparable. I believe a few Cent-Com commanders have said that Iran is the most capable military in the Middle East (Israel is not a part of Cent-Com). Not only is Iran's military large and capable, but the Revolutionary Guard is a formidable force. When you include the paramilitary organizations (Basij Militia), Iran is a force to be reckoned with.
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As a student of International Politics there are two ways the U.S. could "beat" Iran with out substantial headaches while eliminating Iran as a threat.
1. Hit and Run with some classical political plays. Focus on "making friends" with a branch of government or private interests (I would suggest parliament, aligning with the president is probably impossible, the military would cause a domestic political nightmare, and the upper class would probably lead to a fascist government) and then bomb the shit out of the non-aligned military with a plan for our "friends" to fill a leadership vacuum and do the dirty work of assassinating or imoprisoning radical leaders. This is very difficult and require years of building relationships in Iran in a way that we have not been doing.
2. Get off of Oil. The government will need to seek new sources of revenue. Iranians are already paying high income taxes, if they are asked to pay more for less services they will demand changes; to include cleaning up of corruption and ending funding of terrorist groups.
Both of these plans are much more complex than I let on but this is a VG forum and I don't want to write a thesis on how I got to these conclusions. In all honesty, neither is possible right now, which is why I push for bribes and creating dependency, then moving on to carrots and sticks.
