If the Iranian people are seething toward the mullahs, is a US air strike a good idea?

[BurtWorm]

Or is it an obviously stupid fucking idea?

Here's some background if you need help deciding (h/t to Kevin Drum):

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/15/AR2007061502333.html?hpid=topnews


"The current crackdown is a way to instill fear in the population in order to discourage them from future political agitation as the economic situation begins to deteriorate," said Karim Sadjadpour of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "You're going to think twice about taking to the streets to protest the hike in gasoline prices if you know the regime's paramilitary forces have been on a head-cracking spree the last few weeks."

Despite promises to use Iran's oil revenue to aid the poor, Ahmadinejad's economic policies have backfired, triggering 20 percent inflation over the past year, increased poverty and a 25 percent rise in the price of gas last month. More than 50 of the country's leading economists wrote an open letter to Ahmadinejad this week warning that he is ignoring basic economics and endangering the country's future.

....Iran's Supreme National Security Council last month also laid out new censorship rules in a letter to news outlets, instructing them to refrain from writing about public security, oil price increases, new international economic sanctions, inflation, civil society movements, or negotiations with the United States on the future of Iraq, according to Iranian journalists.

[BurtWorm]

1. Who said it's a good idea, and why?

[Hubert Flottz]

6. Prolly some freeper troll.

[BurtWorm]

7. I wondered if Joe Lieberman has a DU sock puppet.

:wtf:

[demnan]

2. If we attack they won't seeth toward the mullahs anymore

they'll seeth toward us.

[BurtWorm]

5. That should be obvious to anyone who knows the least thing about Iran.

[Phredicles]

11. Or human nature - but then these are the people who assumed

we could Shock and Awe the Iraqis into loving us.:eyes:

[Dhalgren]

9. That's why the Bush dictatorship would want to attack!

We can't have a peaceful, western-leaning leader elected in Iran! They have to remain evil, evil, evil! Attack, attack, attack! Jesus, people! Get with the program!

[Hubert Flottz]

3. Joe Lieberman thinks it is...

Kill them all and let Gawd sort them out...winning hearts and minds one chain reaction at a time.

[porphyrian]

4. Young Iranians would be completely Westernized by now if our meddling weren't strengthening...

...the political power of those assholes. Iranians aren't the problem, governments are.

[Zenlitened]

13. Are you suggesting that having the U.S. military camped on Iran's doorstep...

... has not been helpful to the Iranian youth-powered, grass-roots democracy movement?

:wow:

What're you, one o' them pointy-headed liberal intellectuals or somethin'???

:D

[porphyrian]

16. Shit no! I ain't no commy-nist!

I'm not suggesting that at all, I'm flat-out stating it. ;)

[ContraBass Black]

8. Nothing unites a country against the US better than flying in and blowing something up.

We've tried it already.

[JHB]

10. Hellooooo!? Pearl Harbor? The Blitz?

Remember how the US and England just fell to pieces during the wartime bombing, letting the Japanese and Gemans win the war?

Only if you're a neocon. The rest of us -- the ones not living in the Mirror Universe or Bizzaro World -- remember that bombing people really pisses off the ones left, and they tend to rally 'round the flag.

Since we don't like who's holding their flag right now, bombing = stupid. Do the math.

[Eugene]

12. Other: Unf**kingbelievably bad idea.

"No" just wasn't a strong enough choice.

U.S. menacing of Iran strengthens the hard-liners.
The BushCo threat undermined moderates and helped
bring Ahmadinejad to power.

An attack on Iran will probably fail militarily
and be counterproductive politically.

Ahmadinejad is as incompetent as George Bush.
He's doing an excellent job of running Iran
into the ground without our help. I'll trust
the Iranian voters to get rid of him in 2009.

[BurtWorm]

14. Thought experiment: Suppose canada bombed the US, hoping to rouse the people to usurp Bush.

Would it work on you that way? Are these equivalent situations?

[magellan]

17. I'd be compelled to rise up

...and bloody some Canadian noses.

[denverbill]

15. What was GWB's approval rating before and after 9-11?

The same thing would happen for Ahmadinejad.