There is absolutely no doubt that Iran’s oil resources are coveted by Dick Cheney and George Bush and by entire nations of the world, as we may have already passed the Hubbert’s Peak of worldwide oil production.
International rumors have been flying in recent weeks that a possible consortium of Western Nations, led by the U.S., may be planning to bomb Iran’s nuclear infrastructure and send invading armies into one province of Iran which houses the bulk of the Iranian oil industry. The population of Iran would not be the principal target of such military operations, but the usurpation of Iranian oil facilities and takeover of Iranian oil field would be the objective, for long-term strategic purposes that are by now completely familiar to world-watchers.
Iran stands defiant, and does have some military capability to defend against such an invasion. But could Iran hold off a determined effort by the world’s superpower and other powers to take control of its oil?
There is little doubt that the stated reasons for attacking Iran and hardly any more true than the reasons given by the U.S. and Britain for invading Iraq. Iran is not a threat now or in the foreseeable future to the security of the U.S. in military terms. Iran is a stable democracy, not a dictatorship. But Iran is a threat to the financial stability of the U.S. in the near-term and perhaps a threat to the U.S.’ client state in the region, Israel.
How could Iran hold off the invading legions of the U.S. Imperial Army and Air Force?
What if Iran developed either a Nuclear (fission) weapon or even a dirty weapon and deployed that weapon against its own oil fields and infrastructure? What if Iran totally destroyed its own oil-production capacity and polluted its oil-rich territory for generations with high-level nuclear radiation, thus depriving the world for many years of Iranian oil, and setting back the world economy? Would Iran ever consider doing such a thing?
If you saw the prospect of slavery and/or death because of powerful people who coveted your inheritance, would you place yourself at risk of slavery and death, or would you destroy the inheritance if you could? Are the leaders of Iran financially corrupt as the Shah used to be? Or would the fate of the Iranian people and leadership be considered acceptable in the absence of oil income?
There is no way of knowing what the thinking of the Iranian leadership OR the Iranian people would be on this matter at this time, but if Iran saw its fate being similar to that of Iraq at the present time, perhaps Iran would choose to destroy its lucrative attractant that could pull powerful armies from around the world right into the Iranian homeland. There is little doubt that if America took over Iran, the Iranian people would lose and suffer immensely. Maybe the development of nuclear technology and/or weapons would be used as a "poison pill" to prevent a successful takeover of Iran by greedy foreign powers.
Note:
[1]. See http://www.princeton.edu/hubbert/current-events.html
