If we bomb Iran? What will our lives be like?

[rabies1]

Does anyone else wonder what life will really be like if such a thing were to happen? What do you think the average day of an American would be like? Imagine not being able to pay rent or mortgage. Imagine gas 10.00 a gallon. Bread 10.00 a loaf. What about the prescriptions we take regularly to survive? Employment and what would they pay? I understand it would be worse than the Great Depression. What Bush has done to our country is unreal and how he keeps coming up with new ways to destroy our land, air, sea, health, veterans, health care, treating whistle blowers, not charging and torturing people, spying on each other more and more, caging voters, not handling Katrina at all & letting people die, the shape of our military, constant lying to the American people (Cheney, Bush, Gonzo, oh who hasn't lied). This is supposed to be OUR government - they're supposed to work for us. What will it be like when we can't afford to feed or take care of our pets? What will it be like when we're hungry? Has anyone REALLY thought this through?

[jmp]

1. "I understand it would be worse than the Great Depression."

I'm not for attacking Iran but ... you may want to try breathing into a paper bag for a while.

Attacking Iran would be stupid, but hardly fatal. For us anyway. I wouldn't want to be in Iran though.

[nancyr]

3. What goes round comes round..

[killbotfactory]

14. Iran can shut down the Straight of Hormuz

And are within range to attack Saudi Arabian oil infrastructure.

If we attack Iran, the price of oil will skyrocket.

[Systematic Chaos]

2. I really hate to say it, but it's gonna get bad regardless.

We're about to experience an oil shortage which will completely strangle the entire concept of suburban American life. What we do or don't do in Iran isn't gonna matter. Mexico's rate of oil production is falling off a cliff right now, and they supply about 40% of our oil according to what I've read. When they don't have any left to export we are going to see what an illegal immigration problem really is because the Mexican economy will fall apart. Couple that with a collapsing housing market and a stock market which is being propped up by the creation of billions upon billions of dollars out of thin air, and we're pretty much done for.

[Comadreja]

4. So why is the price of gas plummeting again?

The oil pigs' way of stimulating the housing market and resisting changes in energy policy?

[Systematic Chaos]

8. Maybe. I have no idea why that is.

But that is a good guess.

The fecal matter isn't going to collide with the rotating blades for another year or two yet though, from what I am gathering.

But don't take my word for it. Go to the Peak Oil forum and read up on it. It's some scary stuff. :(

[global1]

12. * Told The Oil Companies To Ease Off Because He Needs To Get The......

economy back in order for the Nov '08 elections. Watch over the next 12 months the price of gas will fall. The stock market will ease back up. The housing market will be bailed out. A troop pullout supported by the Repugs will begin to happen as the Repugs begin to distance themselves from *'s bad policies. Yes - I believe that will see a lot begin to go good in the U.S. There will be a competition between the Dems and the Repugs to take credit for all of this.

That is unless *Co decides to attack Iran and we have unrest in the cities that causes him to declare martial law and suspend the '08 elections.

Whatever happens the next 12 to 15 months are going to be interesting.

Oh yes - the other benefit the oil companies will get is if they bring the gas prices down - there will be an easing off of the changes in the energy policy - backing off on alternative fuels, backing off of CAFE standards, etc.

[whistle]

5. Think of Nazi Germany and civilian life for them from January 1942 until Germany

...surrendered in April 1945. As the aggressor, the U.S. will be hit again and again and again.

<snip>
Bombing of Dresden in World War II

The bombing of Dresden, led by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and followed by the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) between February 13 and February 15, 1945, remains one of the more controversial Allied actions of World War II. The exact number of casualties is uncertain, but most historians agree that the firebombing resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of people. Historian Frederick Taylor says:

“ The destruction of Dresden has an epically tragic quality to it. It was a wonderfully beautiful city and a symbol of Baroque humanism and all that was best in Germany. It also contained all of the worst from Germany during the Nazi period. In that sense it is an absolutely exemplary tragedy for the horrors of 20th century warfare...<1>

<cut>
A Dresden police report written shortly after the attacks stated that the old town and the inner eastern suburbs had been engulfed in a single fire which had destroyed almost 12,000 dwellings including residential barracks. The report also said that the raid had destroyed "24 banks; 26 insurance buildings; 31 stores and retail houses; 6470 shops; 640 warehouses; 256 market halls; 31 large hotels; 26 public houses; 63 administrative buildings; 3 theatres; 18 cinemas; 11 churches; 60 chapels; 50 cultural-historical buildings; 19 hospitals including auxiliary, overflow hospitals, and private clinics; 39 schools; 5 consulates; 1 zoological garden; 1 waterworks, 1 railway facility; 19 postal facilities; 4 tram facilities; 19 ships and barges." The report also mentioned that the Wehrmacht's main command post in the Taschenberg Palais, 19 military hospitals and a number of less significant military facilities were destroyed.<21> Almost 200 factories were damaged, 136 seriously (including several of the Zeiss Ikon precision optical engineering works), 28 with medium to serious damage, and 35 with light damage.<22>

"British assessments ... concluded that 23 percent of the city’s industrial buildings were seriously damaged and that 56 per cent of the non-industrial buildings (exclusive of dwellings) had been heavily damaged. Of the total number of dwelling units in the city proper, 78,000 were regarded as demolished, 27,700 temporarily uninhabitable but ultimately repairable, and 64,500 readily repairable from minor damage. This later assessment indicated that 80 per cent of the city’s housing units had undergone some degree of damage and that 50 per cent of the dwellings had been demolished or seriously damaged." and that the USAAF "raids against the city’s railway facilities on 14 and 15 February resulted in severe and extensive damage that entirely paralyzed communications.…" and that "The railway bridges over the Elbe river — vital to incoming and outgoing traffic — were rendered unusable and remained closed to traffic for many weeks after the raids."<23>

The precise number of dead is difficult to ascertain and is not known. Estimates are made difficult by the fact that the city and surrounding suburbs which had a population of 642,000 in 1939<24> was crowded at that time with up to 200,000 refugees,<25> and some thousands of wounded soldiers. The fate of some of the refugees is not known as they may have been killed and incinerated beyond recognition in the fire-storm, or they may have left Dresden for other places without informing the authorities. Earlier reputable estimates varied from 25,000 to more than 60,000, but historians now view around 25,000–35,000 as the likely range<26><27> with the latest (1994) research by the Dresden historian Friedrich Reichert pointing toward the lower part of this range.<28> It would appear from such estimates that the casualties suffered in the Dresden bombings were similar to those suffered in other German cities which were subject to firebombing attacks during area bombardment.<29>

Contemporary official German records give a number of 21,271 registered burials, including 6,865 who were cremated on the Altmarkt.<30> There were around 25,000 officially buried dead by March 22, 1945, war related or not, according to official German report Tagesbefehl (Order of the Day) no. 47 ("TB47"). There was no registration of burials between May and September 1945.<31> War-related dead found in later years, from October 1945 to September 1957, are given as 1,557; from May 1945 until 1966, 1,858 bodies were recovered. None was found during the period 1990–1994, even though there was a lot of construction and excavation during that period. The number of people registered with the authorities as missing was 35,000; around 10,000 of those were later found to be alive.<27> In recent years, the estimates have become a little higher in Germany and lower in Britain; earlier it was the opposite.

There have been higher estimates for the number of dead, ranging as high as 300,000. They are from disputed and unreliable sources, such as the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda headed by Joseph Goebbels, Soviet historians, and David Irving, the once popular but now discredited self-styled 'historian'<32> who retracted his higher estimates.<33> Both the Columbia Encyclopedia and Encarta Encyclopedia list the number as "from 35,000 to more than 135,000 dead", the higher figure of which is in line with Irving's incorrect retracted estimates.

The Nazis made use of Dresden in their propaganda efforts and promised swift retaliation. The Soviets also made propaganda use of the Dresden bombing in the early years of the Cold War to alienate the East Germans from the Americans and British.

The tonnage of bombs dropped on Dresden was actually lower than in many other areas.<34> However, ideal weather conditions at the target site, the wooden-framed buildings, and "breakthroughs" linking the cellars of contiguous buildings and the lack of preparation for the effects of air-raids by Gauleiter Martin Mutschmann,<35> conspired to make the attack particularly devastating. For these reasons the loss of life in Dresden was higher than many other bombing raids during World War II. For example Coventry, the English city which is now twinned with Dresden, and is often compared and contrasted with it, lost 1,236 in two separate raids in 1940. In late 2004, an RAF man involved in the raid said in an interview on the BBC's Radio 4 that another factor was the lower-than-expected level of anti-aircraft fire, which allowed a high degree of accuracy on the part of the bombers.

Overall, Anglo-American bombing of German cities claimed between 305,000 and 600,000 civilian lives.<36> Whether these attacks hastened the end of the war is a controversial question.
<MORE>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Dresden_in_World_War_II

[jmp]

7. Huh???

Hit by who?

[Systematic Chaos]

9. I doubt anybody is gonna bomb our major cities from airplanes.

But economically speaking we'll be in deep shit. Do you honestly think China will stand idly by and just ignore it if we go after Iran? I doubt it very much.

[jmp]

11. There's not much they could do about it.

Anything they could do to hurt us would hurt them at least as bad ... and they can afford it less.

[rabies1]

13. Right. Those who think 'good, maybe then people will do something'

This is one can of whoop ass you don't want opened. Once something has started it's almost impossible to stop - think of starting the Iraq war. I don't even want to get close to doing this Iran attack.
I thank you for exploring what it might truly be like for us and the extremely dangerous ramifications that will result. When Russia and other countries jump in to help Iran we will be screwed big time.
This administration will continue to blow apart our land, laws and its citizens. I will continue to march in Washington DC & contact congress daily. I only hope to be joined by many many others who want to clog up their wheels enough to halt their destructive agenda.

[liberalmuse]

6. Peaceful Revolution, for starters

It's high time we take back our government. Bush and his cabal are enemies of the United States Constitution. They are treasonous, mass murdering, self-serving sleazefucks who need to be impeached and sent to prison indefinitely. They, and all the other pigs at the trough in government need to be tossed out on their asses. They are supposed to be representing 'We The People', but instead, are in it for themselves. They sicken me, because they shit on the graves of all those Americans who gave their lives to keep the American dream alive. I swore an oath to protect and uphold The Constitution, and I meant it.

And no, they have not thought this through any further than the point where they're stuffing their own pocket books full of tainted blood money. They are trying to break the backs of the middle and lower classes so we make just enough to survive, but not enough to dig into the wealth and resources they want all for themselves. They want to create a Feudal Imperialism, and we will be their serf-bitches, unless we do something.

[Comadreja]

10. Tyrants just ignore "peaceful revolutions"

The US populace will never be stirred to any united action until they have no gas and their cell phones and TV's quit working. Bread and circuses worked for the Roman Empire until the barbarians were at the walls.