The current Iranian regime has been in power since the Shah was deposed in 1979. The Shah had been in power since 1953, but was installed after an Iranian communist was elected by Iranian citizens. The invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan should not be taken to be representative of the only way to achieve regime change, or a political outco…
The current Iranian regime has been in power since the Shah was deposed in 1979. The Shah had been in power since 1953, but was installed after an Iranian communist was elected by Iranian citizens. The invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan should not be taken to be representative of the only way to achieve regime change, or a political outcome preferred by the US and other western nations. An Iranian regime that fails to provide a desirable standard of living for Iranian people could be an Iranian regime that falls on it's own, without the US needing to fire a shot. The Biden administration's decision to suspend enforcement of sanctions that were creating the kinds of economic pressures in Iran that also contributed to the dissolution of the USSR and to communism in the Warsaw Pact nations in 1989 was catastrophically stupid. We are now more likely to end up in a hot war with Iran as a result of Philip Gordon's thinking than if Mike Pompeo was still secretary of state.
The dissolution of the USSR hasn’t created a US friendly Russia. Assuming sanctions brought iran down as you suggest, how would you engineer productive relations with a new Iran regime ongoing?
Actually, the dissolution of the USSR created a Russia that was on good terms with the US throughout the 1990s, and also largely eliminated any threat of Russia creating satellite states within central America, Africa and parts of Europe that had not previously been a part of the Russian empire under the Romanovs.
Regarding Iran, if the US took the same approach that it did to defeating the Soviets in the 1980s, it wouldn't require much to cultivate good relations with Iran. The Islamic regime took power 45 years ago with popular support aided by useful idiot Iranian leftists who opposed the shah, and subsequently had to seek refuge in Europe, mostly Scandinavia after the Shah was deposed. But it's not at all clear that the Islamic regime in Iran enjoys popular support any more than an impoverished, hypothetical American regime subject to massive international sanctions and run by Pat Robertson would.
The current Iranian regime has been in power since the Shah was deposed in 1979. The Shah had been in power since 1953, but was installed after an Iranian communist was elected by Iranian citizens. The invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan should not be taken to be representative of the only way to achieve regime change, or a political outcome preferred by the US and other western nations. An Iranian regime that fails to provide a desirable standard of living for Iranian people could be an Iranian regime that falls on it's own, without the US needing to fire a shot. The Biden administration's decision to suspend enforcement of sanctions that were creating the kinds of economic pressures in Iran that also contributed to the dissolution of the USSR and to communism in the Warsaw Pact nations in 1989 was catastrophically stupid. We are now more likely to end up in a hot war with Iran as a result of Philip Gordon's thinking than if Mike Pompeo was still secretary of state.
The dissolution of the USSR hasn’t created a US friendly Russia. Assuming sanctions brought iran down as you suggest, how would you engineer productive relations with a new Iran regime ongoing?
Actually, the dissolution of the USSR created a Russia that was on good terms with the US throughout the 1990s, and also largely eliminated any threat of Russia creating satellite states within central America, Africa and parts of Europe that had not previously been a part of the Russian empire under the Romanovs.
Regarding Iran, if the US took the same approach that it did to defeating the Soviets in the 1980s, it wouldn't require much to cultivate good relations with Iran. The Islamic regime took power 45 years ago with popular support aided by useful idiot Iranian leftists who opposed the shah, and subsequently had to seek refuge in Europe, mostly Scandinavia after the Shah was deposed. But it's not at all clear that the Islamic regime in Iran enjoys popular support any more than an impoverished, hypothetical American regime subject to massive international sanctions and run by Pat Robertson would.