Solving the problem of Iran

The international situation has somewhat updated since I responded to Daisy Cousins with a Darkest Timeline video, some changes for the better, some for the worse. Biden was willing to keep the Ukraine war going to the last Ukrainian, but fortunately didn’t put any U.S. troops (that we know of) into the fray. Trump has cut them off pretty harshly, which is good. The situation with China and Taiwan isn’t better, but it isn’t exactly worse either. However, the Middle East is in horrible shape right now.

This isn’t the fault of Trump or Biden, really. It is the fault of Hamas. From what I have gathered, the Palestinians were fed up with Hamas, and were ready to act against them, so Hamas attacked Israel as a way to divert all attention. Israel, predictably, retaliated against Hamas. As a result, tensions are escalating between the United States and Iran, again. Trump, unfortunately, is reacting to Iran about the same way that all other Presidents have. This is particularly unfortunate because he is supposed to be the president who isn’t interested in foreign policy. Now he’s authorizing bombings in Yemen for reasons no reasonable person can understand. Warmongers can understand it, but reasonable people can’t.

So now the leaders of the United States and Iran are blustering at each other. Neither wants to back down, neither wants to lose face.

The sad part is there is a very - absurdly - simple solution to the problem of Iran.

If you want peace, then the solution is for the US to drop all sanctions against Iran. All of them, unconditionally. This may sound counter-intuitive, but that’s because it is. The best solution actually is to forget about saving face and to do the right thing.

Problematic governments usually are able to maintain their grip on power by focusing their population on an external foe. The leadership of Iran blames their problems on the United States, and also on Israel to a lesser extent. There are actual grounds for them to blame the US, because the sanctions are real and have been since the 1979 revolution. Those sanctions have been bad for Iran, but as usual sanctions are ineffective at convincing a people to overthrow a bad government. The sanctions hurt the common people, and the government blames the country imposing sanctions.

If the United States were to drop all sanctions, that would remove the enemy that the Iranian government relies on to maintain power.

Now that does not mean the Iranian government would automatically fall. It just means that in order to avoid falling they would be too busy on internal restructuring to interact strongly in international relations. Without an external enemy to distract the people, the people will not be as easily distracted. Yes, the Iranian government may try to focus the people on Israel, but that is silly. Israel isn’t nearly as powerful as the United States, even after the nuclear arsenal is accounted for.

The people of Iran, from what I understand, aren’t exactly fond of their own government. Expats from Iran feel very free to criticize that government, and even internally there are protests against the strictness of their government. Many people seem unhappy with the religious rule, and would like something different.

Some would say this move would embolden Iran. It does seem it might do so, but I think it would be only a temporary boost. Of course the current Iranian government is a result of revolt against the previous Iranian government, and the previous Iranian government was heavily backed by the CIA. There will be a few rounds of celebration that “the great Satan” was defeated. Sooner or later the people will notice that the justification for their oppression has disappeared.

At that point the belligerence of that government would crumble. They would be forced to reform whether they want to or not, because otherwise they would be tossed out of power the way the previous government was. Once that happens, the lack of sanctions will push Iran to become more like the country that the sanctions are meant to force them to become.

As such, the improbable move of normalizing relations with Iran will have two beneficial results. First the Iranian government would be forced by their own people to improve. Second, one of the danger spots of the world is resolved and the world becomes a much safer place.