"Big bark, small dog" - and that dog is on its last legs. Ruzbeh Hosseini, Marze por Gohar:
There is no doubt that the latest show of force by the Islamic Regime is nothing more than an attempt to show its legitimacy. Indeed, any regime, whether democratic or totalitarian, is at its most vulnerable when it is seriously questioned by its citizens and the world. But such displays of grandeur are little consolation to those within Iran who live in a country where there is no proverbial “bottom” to hit when it comes to the Islamic regime’s complete incompetence to administer.
Within the last few months Iran's economy has all but stalled. It is estimated that over the last year, almost two-hundred billion investment dollars has left . Throughout the country development projects that were once scheduled to go ahead have either been scrapped or put on hold . A great indication of this is the seemingly un-ending real-estate boom of Tehran that has sputtered and stalled . The impetus behind this economic catastrophe is the Islamic Regime’s bold stance towards the West and its determination to go all-or-nothing on a wide range of social and political issues that are not limited to its controversial nuclear program. With propaganda campaigns and political posturing that is reminiscent of the heydays of the Islamic revolution the regime has ventured to turn government programs that would ordinarily be seen as a waste of government resources in more democratic countries into symbols of national pride. It hasn’t worked. ...
Hosseini concludes: 'Contrary to what the media may believe, such a confrontation will not be with the United States or Israel. Rather, the regime’s incompetence at home will pit it against an increasingly impatient population who longingly looks to the successes of the “East Asian Tigers” that have surpassed Iran in economic strength and reminisces of the days when Iran not only was a regional power, but the world’s sole super-power 2,500 years ago.' Read the whole article at the link.
National Review: "The problem is the regime." The Editors, National Review:
The problem with Iran is precisely not its nuclear program. The problem is the regime. We have every reason to think this regime would use its arsenal to threaten the U.S. and its allies, and to extract concessions inimical to our interests. Nor can we exclude the possibility that the mullahs would actually launch their nukes. Consider Hashemi Rafsanjani, that celebrated "moderate," exulting that the Muslim world will "vomit [Israel] out from its midst," since "a single atomic bomb has the power to completely destroy [it]." Nuclear deterrence operates on the assumption that your foe is rational. Things start to break down when a significant part of its ruling establishment fancies itself on divine mission to evaporate the Zionist Entity in a mushroom cloud, roll back the Great Satan, and usher in a paradisiacal rule by sharia. That's not a regime to bargain with. The goal must be to remove it from power.
This does not mean invasion and occupation. But it does mean getting serious about supporting the Iranian democracy movement. The contradiction of Iran is that its people, the most educated, moderate, and pro-Western of the Muslim Middle East, are ruled by the most aggressive Islamists in the world. It wouldn't take a large expenditure to catalyze that tension. ...
We can expect more of the usual incoherent drivel from the Left. What we need from President Bush is action.
Iran
