As each day passes, war in the Middle East seems increasingly likely. The truth is that Israel will never allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons, and Iran is absolutely determined to continue developing a nuclear program. So right now Israel and Iran are engaged in a really bizarre game of "nuclear chicken" and neither side is showing any sign of blinking. In fact, even prominent world leaders are now openly stating that it is basically inevitable that Israel is going to strike Iran. For example, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi recently made the stunning admission that the G8 nations "absolutely believe" that Israel will attack Iran. But a conflict between Israel and Iran would not just affect the Middle East - it would have staggering implications for the rest of the globe.
#1) The Price Of Oil Would Skyrocket - One of the very first things a war with Iran would do is that it would severely constrict or even shut down oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz. Considering the fact that approximately 20% of the world’s oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz, world oil markets would instantly be plunged into a frenzy. In fact, some analysts believe that oil prices would rise to $250 per barrel.
So are you ready to pay 8 or 10 dollars for a gallon of gasoline? What do you think that would do to the U.S. economy?
The truth is that every single transaction that we make every single day is influenced by the price of oil. If the price of oil suddenly doubles or triples that would absolutely devastate the already very fragile U.S. economic system.
Forget about the thousands of years of history, forget Isfahan and Tabriz monuments, forget Khwarizmi, forget the whirling dervishes, forget Tusi, Alhazen, Biruni and Al-Farisi, forget Persian cuisine and its perfumes – and, above all, forget Omar Khayamm. Iran is today an easy-to-dislike country and it’s even fashionable to find it highly distasteful. Remembering how much of Iran’s history and culture is part of what makes our daily lives more enjoyable and rich is seen as something beneath a gentleman’s – or a lady’s – dignity. After three centuries of strict separation between religion and the State in the West, the idea of a country ruled by religious tenets smacks of fanaticism to our good citizens, even when so many if not most of us profess to observe more or less the same religious principles in our daily lives, albeit a little less strictly. Also, the abrasive style of speech of so many Iranian leaders and the support they give to like-minded groups in other countries does little to make them and the country they speak for more likeable in the eyes of Western sophisticates and their Eastern clones. Above all, our society needs external enemies, real or fictitious, to keep people busy with something else than the real cause of their troubles, and a country ruled by a religion that is not “ours” fits the job description perfectly.-Iran Sanctions: an Obsession Explained in Four Acts and a Poem
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