The State of the Union address that will be delivered by President Obama to Congress on Tuesday will be full of sound and fury and it looks as though the US and Iran may very well end up in a full blown war. Some say that this war with Iran could be the biggest international incident since the Cuban Missile Crisis. Many people are worried that it could lead to a third world war and perhaps that’s not such a bad thing.
One of the most troubling issues with the State of the Union address is that it seems to have the US and Israel at an equal height with Iran. The US is not saying that it is contemplating a military strike on Iran, but apparently they would indeed “wish” that it happened. Many people wonder just what the US State Department thinks they would have to do if Iran were to make a nuclear bomb. Well, if the Iranian leadership had one, and Israel got it, then the US would indeed have a reason to go after that country too right?
Well, the truth is that there isn’t much that the US can do because Iran is a country that already poses a very significant threat to the stability of the Middle East. Iran sponsors international terrorism, and while the United States and its allies work hard to prevent such things from happening, they can only do so much. As long as Iran keeps developing nuclear weapons technology, or continues to sponsor proxy terrorist groups, then the US is in for a serious fight if they ever want to get a hold of them and take them out.
It has been widely reported that there are currently about twenty-five thousand weapons in the region that are either possessed or maintained by Iran. Additionally, according to some news reports that I’ve read, there are about two to three hundred watchful, and possibly tens of a thousand operational, IEDs. In light of all this, it would indeed seem that we need an apple to an apple store. The United States and our allies would have to quickly ramp up efforts, if they want to prevent the Iranians from building more bombs, which would make matters much worse.
If the United States and our allies were to start shipping apples to Iran, then the country would immediately raise the flag and become very uncomfortable. In fact, it would likely be quite embarrassing for the United States to have an apple store on the border of an allied nation. Iran may even respond by putting more pressure on the US and our allies with additional sanctions.
As it stands now, the apple is certainly a luxury, but it would indeed represent an important first step towards rapprochement between the US and Iran. The timing for such an apple store in Iran is somewhat unfortunate, and it could cause further difficulties. For example, during the Iraq war, the US was quite concerned that there would not be an apple store in Iran. That in turn forced the Bush administration to start supplying apples to the military.
With increased pressure from the United States, and perhaps from European nations as well, Iran may decide that it is in their best interest to open up its apple market. However, that would not really help the United States at all. Further, as long as there are sanctions on the importing of iPhones, and other technologies, the apple industry in Iran will remain small. Therefore, in the end, it would only be beneficial for the United States and our allies to begin opening up their own industries to produce these things.
Furthermore, we need to consider the impact on the American economy if the US did start lifting sanctions on the apple industry. It would certainly hurt the US economy, because the people of Iran would buy the products, and then the US would cut off sales to them. Additionally, it would affect the oil prices, because it would imply that the US was again losing its competitive advantage. Therefore, the lifting of the sanctions could be a real opportunity for the United States to negotiate better terms for trade with its Asian allies, rather than starting a trade war, which we unfortunately are already in.