some of the things that will happen after the Iran War starts.
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The mainstream media will happily welcome the war and all the conflict that leads up to it, fully supporting the right wing neoconservatives' line of thinking that justifies the attack. The MSM will emphasize the evil empire of Iran and Syria and make it seem like the only possible response the US could have will be to attack.
Right wing Democrats like Feinstein, Lieberman, Clinton, Schumer and others will support the Iran war. Kerry and a handful of others WILL oppose it. They will be attacked, with their patriotism threatened.
Thousands of Israeli civilians will be killed by rockets fired on major cities. This could reach much higher numbers if Iran uses chemical warfare weapons.
Tens of thousands of Iranian civilians will be killed in the first few days of the massive attack the US will wage upon Iran. Within days, Iran's air power and communications will be destroyed. Power generation operations will be taken out. US losses will be far greater than those seen in Iraq. But because the war will primarily be an air war, the US will not see massive troop losses. The US Navy WILL see far worse losses than the Iraq conflict. Iran's weaponry will prove effective in attacking US naval vessels.
There is a reasonable likelihood that Iran will launch a nuclear device against Israel, probably one manufactured in N. Korea, Pakistan, China or one of the former Soviet states.
As with Iraq, the US will relatively quickly "win" the war. Iran will, like Iraq, fold quickly, forcing the US to manage a larger country with a much larger population. With military resources already thinly stretched, the US will bring in massive levels of privatized forces-- blackwater troops, mercenaries and oil field and pipeline security guards.
Unlike Iraq, the US will brazenly grab the oil production facilities and take them over, using expensive mercenaries to guard the oil fields and piplelines. It will not work. The Iranians will sabotage the oil wells, not permitting the US to tap their energy resources. This loss of millions of barrels a day in oil on the world market will hurt all the G8 nations and the developing nations.
Right wing talk radio and Fox News will applaud the Bush administration for its "bold" decisiveness. The men who make up the bulk of the remaining Bush base will feel more manly, vicariously experiencing the attack on Iraq as a way to personally feel more macho, more potent.
The UN, hobbled by Bush's appointee, John Bolton, will do nothing of import.
In the US and the rest of the world: Oil prices will explode-- surpassing $100, $150, even $200 a barrell, with gas prices, jumping to as much as $10 a gallon.
Prices will go up all over the world. This will be very damaging to the USA's already falling reputation and image. In nations with weak or marginal economies, the economic impact of the energy implosion will lead to deaths by starvation and heat prostration, and riots.
The energy price explosion will have a domino effect upon the economy-- affecting all goods that must be trucked, refrigerated, that include petroleum products... This will affect local taxes as heating, cooling, local road repair costs and more all triple in price.
Short, one or two day gasoline shortages may occur, but there will be plenty of availabiilty of gasoline. The oil companies will be sure to take advantage of the situation.
The number of terrorist attacks throughout the world will significantly increase, particularly in countries that ally with the US. Europe will not be so quick to jump into this war.
Rapture ready fundamentalist Christians drooling for the messiah to come will be even more excited, hoping that the new levels of conflict will be bringing them closer to being "raptured" up to heaven with Jesus.
As the focus is moved away from Iraq, Shiite attacks on Sunni's will increase, and Iranian operatives in Iraq will become more bold, more aggressive, killing more Iraqis and more US military personnel.
Once the fighting begins, Iran will start regularly attacking Israel directly and through its surrogates in Syria and Lebanon, and will more aggressively channel weapons and explosive materials to Hamas and other terror groups in Palestine.
As the US economy boils into chaos, gold prices will soar, the US dollar will drop precipitously, and costs of imported goods will go up. Prices at Walmart will tend to stay low, since China pegs its currency to the dollar. But, as the dollar falls, China may decide it is finally time to disconnect from the dollar, and if they get angry that the US attacks one of their allies and customers-- Iran, they may call in their debts, or worse, switch to using another currency. Then, Walmart customers and the rest of Americans who have been depending upon cheap Chinese goods will be in big trouble.
As gas prices explode, jobs that were formerly marginal will no longer be worth driving to. People will have to quit working jobs that require long commutes. Legislators will introduce emergency legislation for regional rail construction. But it won't do much good because of the time from planning and design to completion.
American car manufacturers that have focused on big SUVs will be in major trouble, will need to be rescued by foreign manufacturers with existing hi-mileage technologies.
Energy for homes-- for heat and air conditioning will double, triple, possibly even quadruple.
The housing market for larger houses will collapse. Banks will be faced with rising levels of mortgage defaults.
Terrorist attacks in the US will occur. Bush will use them as an excuse to invoke anti-democratic, fascist policies, further suspending constitutional rights.
As disposable income is eaten up by energy costs and local government tax increases to cover increased costs for maintaining roads, schools, etc. consumer spending will drop drastically, affecting local restaurants, department stores, mom and pop stores. Except for escapist fare, the movie industry will see a drop in attendance, as people cut back on spending and driving.
National guard unit call-ups will leave the US almost unprotected at home, with minimal guard units left to deal with natural emergencies, like Hurricanes, toronadoes and floods.
Bush will NOT see a 90% support level. He may get a small bounce, but the economy will fall so fast and so hard that the American public will quickly lose their patience.
When will the war start? Good question. Some say Bush (or Rove and Rumsfeld) will start it before the November elections, so they can invoke the "don't change horses in midstream" line of reasoning. Others say the gas price increase and energy price explosion will happen so fast they'll wait until after the elections.
Fortunately, there are some sane heads not yet laid off or purged from Runsfeld's military who are opposed to the war. They may be the USA's last best hope.
This is a starter list. Add your comments with additional effects of the Iran war.
I hope it inspires you to do all you can to get the hostilities in the midldle east happening now to quiet down.
Authors Bio:
Rob Kall is an award winning journalist, inventor, software architect,
connector and visionary. His work and his writing have been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, ABC, the HuffingtonPost, Success, Discover and other media.
He's given talks and workshops to Fortune
500 execs and national medical and psychological organizations, and pioneered
first-of-their-kind conferences in Positive Psychology, Brain Science and
Story. He hosts some of the world's smartest, most interesting and powerful
people on his Bottom Up Radio Show,
and founded and publishes one of the top Google- ranked progressive news and
opinion sites, OpEdNews.com
more detailed bio:
Rob Kall has spent his adult life as an awakener and empowerer-- first in the field of biofeedback, inventing products, developing software and a music recording label, MuPsych, within the company he founded in 1978-- Futurehealth, and founding, organizing and running 3 conferences: Winter Brain, on Neurofeedback and consciousness, Optimal Functioning and Positive Psychology (a pioneer in the field of Positive Psychology, first presenting workshops on it in 1985) and Storycon Summit Meeting on the Art Science and Application of Story-- each the first of their kind. Then, when he found the process of raising people's consciousness and empowering them to take more control of their lives one person at a time was too slow, he founded Opednews.com-- which has been the top search result on Google for the terms liberal news and progressive opinion for several years. Rob began his Bottom-up Radio show, broadcast on WNJC 1360 AM to Metro Philly, also available on iTunes, covering the transition of our culture, business and world from predominantly Top-down (hierarchical, centralized, authoritarian, patriarchal, big) to bottom-up (egalitarian, local, interdependent, grassroots, archetypal feminine and small.) Recent long-term projects include a book, Bottom-up-- The Connection Revolution, debillionairizing the planet and the Psychopathy Defense and Optimization Project.
To watch Rob having a lively conversation with John Conyers, then Chair of the House Judiciary committee, click here. Watch Rob speaking on Bottom up economics at the Occupy G8 Economic Summit, here.