Bloodless Ways to Hit the Iranian Street

…right where it hurts the mullahs most.

…The obvious next diplomatic step is to show Iran that the world meant what it said by following through with the toughest achievable sanctions. A myth has developed in some circles that there are “no good options” available to pressure Iran, but that’s more excuse than analysis. Iran’s mullahs are unpopular at home and their citizens will notice if they are declared a global pariah state. Sanctions on travel by Iran’s government officials, diplomats and sports teams may be largely symbolic, but such symbolism will not be missed on the Persian street.
Iran is also vulnerable economically. Sanctions on banks that deal with Iran can limit the regime’s access to global credit markets for trade and other financing. Despite its oil exports, Iran also imports some 40% of its refined gasoline. A ban on selling gasoline to Iran would surely lead to gas lines and other shortages there, with possible domestic political repercussions. And it is domestic discontent that the mullahs rightly fear the most.
The worry in the West is that Iran would respond to a gasoline embargo by playing its oil card in retaliation, withholding its supplies and sending world oil prices perhaps to $100 a barrel. But the mullahs can’t eat oil. Amid other economic sanctions, they would need their income from oil sales more than ever. They are also watching closely to see if the world is serious when it says it won’t allow them to go nuclear, and they know better than anyone that gasoline imports are their biggest political danger. They’ll know a wrist slap from a serious policy.

We’ve cut North Korea off financially from practically the whole world. Who’s still playing with them? Russia, who now with China are the powers still pushing for ‘negotiations’ with Iran. Let them play ~ we should be quietly choking off everything around them that we possibly can. I mean, if Congress is actually reading their own report…

…Anyone who still thinks a nuclear-armed Iran won’t pose a serious, and perhaps mortal, threat ought to consult this week’s bipartisan staff report from the House Intelligence Committee. Drawing on open-source information and mindful of classified background, the report lays out the history of Iranian nuclear deception and its attempts to promote trouble throughout the Middle East. It notes that “Iran probably has an offensive biological weapons program.” And it discusses in detail Iran’s support for Hezbollah and other terror groups, as well as its continuing support for insurgents who are killing Americans in Iraq.
“A nuclear-armed Iran would likely embolden the leadership in Tehran to advance its aggressive ambitions in and outside of the region, both directly and through the terrorists it supports–ambitions that gravely threaten the stability and the security of U.S. friends and allies,” says the House Intelligence report. With a nuclear arsenal that they felt protected them from retaliation, the mullahs would also be more likely to use conventional military force in the Middle East. The domino effect as Turkey, Egypt and the Saudis sought their own nuclear deterrent would also not be “stabilizing,” to cite the highest value of our Middle Eastern “realists.” And don’t forget President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s vow that “Israel must be wiped off the map.”

…there shouldn’t be a problem.

One Response to “Bloodless Ways to Hit the Iranian Street”

1. Crusader says:

   August 24, 2006 at 10:18 am

   Agreed. They cannot afford to lose their oil sales $$, as without it, they cannot afford to sponser their proxies for long, as the population would not be happy watching Persians starve and wait in line for gas, as their $ go to support Arabs in far off lands. I just wish we had the fortitude to do it. But God Forbid the US population have to give up anything for this war…..