#nuclearwaepons hashtag - Bluesky

@glyko.bsky.social

11 months ago

To be sure, sanctions (along with chronic mismanagement and systemic corruption) have depleted Iran's treasury and spurred inflation and unemployment. The regime can barely keep the lights on and periodically has to shutter government offices and schools in order to conserve energy. But for regime leaders who claim to know the mind of God, those economic troubles are a small price to pay for making Iranians better Muslims. The Islamic Republic's affection for proxy wars, terrorism and antisemitic conspiracies display a mindset fundamentally different from our own. Sanctions may cause such believers pain. They deprive them of resources. But they haven't in the slightest obliged them to forsake their faith and their missions.

$From the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s forward to now, the Islamic Republic has proven far more resilient than its critics expected, in large part because it has a pattern of using short-term retreats to pursue long-term, consistent goals. The regime gives ground when necessary but always circles back to take back its concessions. You can see this pattern domestically. Since 2009, the clerical regime has overcome numerous nationwide protests, some of which had economic sparks and all of which could have proved fatal to the theocracy. Each time, neither Khamenei nor his security services have flinched from doing what's necessary to suppress internal dissent, but they have also made short-term concessions to retain control. For instance, the mullahs have repeatedly eased restrictions against what they consider a lethal threat - public visibility of women's hair - allowing scarves to come down temporarily when unrest threatens the state. Later the regime reasserts its sartorial dictates, arresting and beating refractory women. Abroad the regime acts similarly. When the United States invaded Afghanistan and Iraq, Tehran held back, temporarily played nice, and then devised tactics to kill and torment Americans. Obama's nuclear accord fits the pattern: Make minor concessions while establishing the means to come back stronger.$

From the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s forward to now, the Islamic Republic has proven far more resilient than its critics expected, in large part because it has a pattern of using short-term retreats to pursue long-term, consistent goals. The regime gives ground when necessary but always circles back to take back its concessions. You can see this pattern domestically. Since 2009, the clerical regime has overcome numerous nationwide protests, some of which had economic sparks and all of which could have proved fatal to the theocracy. Each time, neither Khamenei nor his security services have flinched from doing what's necessary to suppress internal dissent, but they have also made short-term concessions to retain control. For instance, the mullahs have repeatedly eased restrictions against what they consider a lethal threat - public visibility of women's hair - allowing scarves to come down temporarily when unrest threatens the state. Later the regime reasserts its sartorial dictates, arresting and beating refractory women. Abroad the regime acts similarly. When the United States invaded Afghanistan and Iraq, Tehran held back, temporarily played nice, and then devised tactics to kill and torment Americans. Obama's nuclear accord fits the pattern: Make minor concessions while establishing the means to come back stronger.

The Iranian negotiating tactic the Trump administration doesn’t get: Sanctions and ‘maximum pressure’ have never made the clerical regime abandon its nuclear ambitions. www.politico.com/news/magazin... By Reuel Marc Gerecht and Ray Takey #Islamism #IranianImperialism #nuclearwaepons