Originally Posted by
Turbosina
Before the "excursion": The SoH was open to all traffic.
Today: closed to all traffic.
Before: Oil stable at around $60.
Today: Oil has increased by 50 pct and will likely go higher when markets reopen.
Before: Jet fuel prices stable.
Today: Jet fuel up by an average of 80 pct. (My usual cheap Jet A stop was $3.30/ gal, today they are at $6.35.)
Before: Elderly, ailing imam in charge of the regime, with significant popular discontent posing a real challenge to the regime's continued existence.
Today: More radical, much younger, and likely much angrier imam supposedly in charge. (In reality it's likely competing factions within the IRGC are duking it out for control, which is likely a worse situation than before.) Moreover, we've almost certainly turned public opinion even harder against us, deflecting their hatred for the regime onto the people who have been bombing them.
Before: Russia's oil revenues were $9.7 billion/ month.
Today: Russian oil revenues have doubled to $20 bn/ month.
Before: Iran had enriched uranium buried deep underground.
Today: Iran has enriched uranium buried deep underground.
Before: Iran had a large conventional military capability and a significant asymmetrical warfare capability.
Today: Iran's conventional military has been largely destroyed, but its asymmetric warfare capabilities remain powerful enough to allow them to close one of the world's most critical shipping lanes.
These are the facts. (Aside from my opinion on the stability of the regime, which is just my opinion.) Everything else are verifiable, hard facts.
If this looks like winning to you... Well then you have a different grasp on reality than I do.
The assumption that there was a popular threat against the theocracy that had any chance of causing change is a fallacy. I’m not even sure if the son of the previous terrorist is actually brain active (the last I saw he was missing limbs in a coma), but any of them put in charge by the council will be the same. They do not care what the proletariat think. They have their hooks in every segment of rule and plenty of nooses and bullets to go around.
The only solution is complete destruction, which is a grand task that few would have the stomach for.