Position: Iranian regime overthrow should be encouraged
This position addresses the topic Iranian nuclear crisis.
For this position
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"By using America's full economic, political, and diplomatic clout and by working with dissident groups, the Soviet Union was defeated without firing a shot. This can be our goal in Iran as well."
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"First, Iran has positioned itself as a regional power and must be dealt with as such. That will mean talking to Iran instead of at it, negotiating rather than demanding. [...] Third, the United States urgently needs instruments that can hurt Tehran short of launching a major war. Those include propaganda and aid campaigns, support for the mullahs' domestic political opponents, and economic pressure."
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"Without a self-inspired reversal, a sanctions-prompted about-face or a revolution, Iran will further isolate itself, heighten its pariah status and invite a war beyond proxies."
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"An American invasion is out of the question. But perhaps we could do to Iran what the Iranians are doing to us in Iraq, where they are funneling weapons and money to militias that are killing our soldiers."
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"Iran's economy is certainly vulnerable. It just started rationing gasoline - and relies on imports for 40 percent of its needs. We might look at getting key suppliers, like the United Arab Emirates and India, to cut back. Another option is to target the government's economic mismanagement: Buy up and flood the international market with Iranian rials, devaluing the currency and sending already high inflation and unemployment further skyward."
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"Pro-democracy organizations in Iran believe they can bring down the regime if they receive support from the U.S. [...] They wish our leaders would openly endorse regime change, and they would like our radios and television to support freedom instead of apologizing for the mullahs. We should call for Western trade unions to build a strike fund for Iranian workers, many of whom have not been paid for months, some for more than a year, and we should provide sympathetic Iranians with laptops, servers, cell and satellite phones and phone cards, so that they can communicate with one another."
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"The much-heralded announcement that we were willing to sit down with the Iranians if they halted their enrichment program was either a total collapse or a gambit designed to expose the Iranians’ unwillingness to play by the international rules. If the latter, it was too clever by half, as shown by the sorts of Western offers that are now trickling out of the foreign offices. We have actually set a clever trap for ourselves."
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"Already Iran has begun to ration gasoline, setting off major riots. Because of Iran's heavy subsidies and failure to attract new investment, some analysts believe it will have to start importing oil within five to 10 years — even though it has the world's No. 2 oil reserves. A well-targeted strike on Iran's main gasoline refinery would ruin its economy. So would a strike, now rather than later, on its nuclear facilities at Natanz and Bushehr."
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"Expressions of dissatisfaction with Ahmadinejad's leadership are already being heard inside Iran from both hard-liners and reformers. Iran's internal political dynamics are opaque, to say the least, but conciliation with the Great Satan would probably make it harder for him to divert attention from the costs his people are paying for his mischief-making, domestic repression, and inability to reform the economy."
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"The White House should exploit the growing cracks in Iranian society. Just as Ronald Reagan championed striking shipyard workers in Poland in 1981, so too should Bush support independent Iranian trade unions. Forcing the regime to be accountable to its people both betters the lives of ordinary Iranians and undercuts Ahmadinejad's Dr. Strangelove fantasies. In Iran, wildcat strikes helped launch the Islamic Revolution; so too might they end it."
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"Such an attack would provide an excuse for the most reactionary and violent elements within the ruling elite to stifle any voice of dissent not just from within the civil society, but from the divided and factional ruling elite."
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"Don't be fooled by talk of a "surgical" strike on Iran's nuclear facilities. It would probably require thousands of sorties by our air force, over two to three weeks. It would mean bombing Iran's radar sites and air force, repeatedly striking multiple targets across the country, securing the Straits of Hormuz and oil facilities throughout the Persian Gulf, and preparing for attacks against our troops, citizens, allies, and interests across the region and beyond."
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"At a minimum, we must make use of the extensive ties that Iranian exiles in the U.S. still have with their homeland. Our spy agencies — all 16 of them — should be aiding the democratic opposition. We should also be beaming TV, radio and Internet programming to Iran's youth. Those going online from 2000 to 2005 surged 740%, the World Bank recently reported. If we give these young people a choice, they just might take it."
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"We need to gather as many nations together who understand the nature of Iran and the threat a nuclear-armed mullahcracy presents, and act to stop it. That doesn't necessarily mean war, but it does mean putting massive resources into whatever means we have to undermine the mullahcracy from within."
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Against this position
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"From the American side, any new approach must address Iran’s security by clarifying that Washington is not seeking regime change in Tehran, but rather changes in the Iranian government’s behavior. (While Secretary Rice has said recently that overthrowing the mullahs is not United States policy, President Bush has pointedly refused to affirm her statements.) To that end, the United States should be prepared to put a few assurances on the table."
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Mixed on this position
No results
