Dollars and Cents

War with Iran seems to be the perfect way to bring down the American government by destroying the US economy. This is what Osama Bin Laden was talking about, and he could not have had a more compliant bunch than can be found this day both in the White House and in the Congress, Democrat or Republican. What an incredible, biblical pyre of civilization, truly something that evangelicals and Zionists would relish, the rapture. Osama wins. AIPAC triumphs. All fall down.

Surely, there must be a better way for the banking elite to scam us instead of instigating war and genocide?

Isn't the IRS enough?

Despite gung ho assurances from certain US generals that it will be 'easy' ( http://en.rian.ru/world/20070913/78518873-print.html ) I seriously doubt that the USA military could eliminate all of Iran's ability to retaliate in a first strike. Saddam Hussein was firing off scuds at Tel Aviv for weeks after the start of Gulf War 1 despite the best efforts of the US to locate and destroy all the Iraqi Scud launchers, and that in a country much smaller, flatter and less well equipped than Iran.

I've no doubt that the Iranians are currently engaged in a giant game of Three Card Monte aka Hide the Lady. Everything that can be dispersed will be, and what can't be hidden from prying US eyes in the sky will be kept perpetually on the move interspersed with a large number of decoys.

Iran will retaliate to any attack, and the economic effect on the world economy, should Gulf oil shipment facilities take damage or the Gulf of Hormuz be blocked, would be catastrophic. The USA seems already to be heading into a recession as a result of the bursting of the housing bubble and the subsequent constipation in the corporate and interbank credit markets. In the event of an attack on Iran, crude oil price will spike into the hundreds of dollars zone and the US dollar could tip from its current (so far) manageable decline to a sudden collapse. Result: Global recession and a horrible time for everybody on the planet.

Iran and Iraq fought each other to a standstill between 1980 an 1988, with over a million dead. If the US attacks Iran, the people will unite behind the current leadership (despite its unpopularity) in a Jihad against 'The Great Satan' until either of two conditions are met — the US leaves the Middle East or all Iranians capable of firing a Kalashnikov or setting an IED are dead. They won't run out of bombs bullets either, and many other parties equally pissed off with US military adventurism will keep them supplied. They won't give up any more than the Iraqis have. The conflict could conceivably escalate to a general Asian war stretching from the borders of Israel to India.

Does any of this matter to Dubya and Cheney? I don't think so. Psychopaths live inside a bubble reality of their own creation, where winning is all that matters, and anything beyond immediate gain is invisible and irrelevant. All perceived opposition must be crushed rather than dialogued. That's just the way their brains work. Wealth and power also gives those two a feeling of invulnerability. Nothing will impact them personally no matter what they do — and after all they're the deciders, and the decider is always right. When anything goes wrong, it must by definition be somebody else's fault. An attack on Iran is seen as their route to victory in Iraq, and in Dubya's heart, supports a vision of himself as the greatest American President of all time — St. George, slayer of the evildoers... take that Dad...