Gas prices here in northern California have jumped over 25 cents more a gallon since news of the latest sanctions against Iran, where the intended effect is to require Iran's oil customers to keep their payments at home and only release them in return for purchases of goods, effectively locking up Iranian oil revenue overseas.
The price of gasoline in Tehran is $2.28 a gallon (source: Expatisan cost of living index).
Glad to pay it.
ReplyDeleteWhat are you trying to say? That ordinary Americans suffer because of their leader's policies? You overlook the fact that money isn't everything, and that many Americans are willing to pay more for gas if that means that dictatorial regimes in Iran and the Arab world lose some income, or to prevent them getting their hands on nuclear weapons.
ReplyDeleteAnd according to you, for how long are these brave taxpayers going to be willing to pay the 9-digit annual American aid paid to Israel in order for them to keep their nuclear blackmail up and running, while they kill, displace, dispossess, and destroy more and more Palestinian lives and land, and tear apart hundreds of UN resolutions in the process, defying international law on a daily basis since 1967 ? 4, 5 ,6 ,10 billion ? how much have they been forced to pay to Hosni Mubarak's dictatorship, and how much are they willing to pay blood money for today's Morsi ? how much to the Pakistani military and ISI ? how much to the Bahraini monarchs quelling their own people's legitimate protests through Saudi military help ? how much to secure these many Sunni sheikhdoms renowned for their brilliant contributions to human progressin general, and specially for women ? how much to the Iraqi invasion of which every intelligence agency now openly states not a single WMD claim happened to be true and that is now both russian and iranian-friendly, plagued by unprecedented sectarian strife and still a very long way to compensate for its astronomical human and material losses incurred by so many years of wars, bombings and embargoes ? how much for CIA illegal assassination programs including American citizen ? and the list goes on and on. So do us a favor and stop being so desperately Manichean through you utterly naive take and associated statements on the issue, sit back and watch the real impact of all these imperialistic wars on the economy and hence on the ordinary American for a change, and if possible try to go past that 40-year old, reaganian, patriotic garbage of alleged individual contribution duty... like it's such a great and holy cause to defeat the Great Evil of Iran. Like it's gonna make any difference to the crisis they're going through on every lovel... I mean seriously, does the country look that safer, happier, more free, or wealthier after all these unilateral campaigns of death based every time on varying degrees of lies ? Americans are simply fed up by Congress, wars, wars, and WARS again dude, wake the frack up. Look at the shape of the country nowadays, millions can't feed themselves, 47 MILLIONS are considered poor by international standards, and it's getting worse by the month. Sad news is, they still have to pay for a 700 Billion+ military budget that only serves the corrupt ruling elites and its personal agendas, since the Pentagon is fighting Obama's cuts very hard to this day. Just like the average Iranian doesn't want to hear about its self-proclaimed leaders' supposedly sworn enemies of Islam, their absurd, misguided, and terribly costly quest of selfish greatness which only translates into military progress, both for internal repression and self-protection of outside competitors from other regional heavyweights such as Israel or Saudi Arabia... no to mention the additional harm implied by the fanatical nature of their regime, on top of its rampant corruption. "many Americans are willing to pay more for gas" yeah right.
DeleteIn your one-track mind it's all about Americans. Also, you forget the rest of the world. People in other parts of the world are getting hit as hard if not harder than those who live in the US. It's quite audacious of you to speak for everybody. Yeah, perhaps the lack of money is the last thing in your thoughts, and the amount of money you spend might not be troubling you because your probably sitting on a gold mine. How about widening your spectrum and be more considerate in your statements regarding these sort of matters. Alot of other people see this damned endeavor of isolating/embargoeing Iran as very counter-productive and not worth the backlash effect. Even so, many of them are not particurarly fond of the regime in Iran.
DeleteAnd FYI, current sanctions actually BENEFIT the "Arab dictatorships" whom have been allowed to make historical profits from oil sales, overproduce to the very infrastructural limit of their refineries to take advantage of Iran's plummeting income and sales, and the subsequent skyrocketing oil prices, notably Saudi Arabia. Yes indeed, those very same arab regimes you think your beloved government is trying to harm for the sake of liberty. That's right, keep on screaming out your pride of paying more every time you need a refill, and that with a straight face. That's the way forward.
DeleteDon't worry. With the shale gas and oil findings in the US and Canada, the balance of oil power will shift toward the US. The US will be exporting gas by 2020 - 2025 and every penny paid (or even put on the national debt) is worth it as long as you the US don't let the Mullahs to dominate the ME
DeleteYeah sure, and it's worth it if the arab monarchies dominate the ME instead, right ? it will certainly provide the region with more enlightenment than if it were the mullahs, of course. Sunni progressive vibes indeed. Financing fundamentalism everywhere they can, with Qatar buying out anything that passes through their clutches and propping up Islamist parties in every post-revolution country possible in the arab world, from North Africa to neighboring Egypt, with a special deluxe package with an Al-Qaeda offshoot in Syria, we're headed the right way for sure. Do you want a trip to Saudi Arabia to see how you would like it there ? Let's just replace one dominant dictatorship with another, so long as it suits our geopolitical posture in the region huh ? You speak like the USA has liberated the world from the danger of the evil IRI thanks to the help of the mighty GCC thwarting their evil oil plans... and that's kind of sad.
DeleteStupid USA. And all this for what? For a nuclear weapon that has not been born or claimed to be wanted?
ReplyDeleteAs long as USA is under occupation it will react like a typical occupied country!
Delete@tubetwitlicker You forget that Iran is under the occupation of a backward regime with an Taliban sub-Saharan desert mentality.
Where i live the price is close to 9$ a gallon since the summer of 2012. For a more censor friendly word...We are royally ***effed***!!!
ReplyDeleteInteresting analysis Mark:
ReplyDeleteThe institute of energy has an in depth analysis of gas prices and factors affceting the prices. Iran and the Middle East takes up just one paragraph in this detailed analysis:
http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/gas/why-are-gas-prices-so-high/
While there is no doubt that unrest in the Middle East does increase prices of oil, the US gas prices were know to hit record highs during Iran's long gone years of maximum production.
As to the boasting about Iran's own gas prices being low, that's hardly the case. With the first phase of subsidy elimination the gas prices in Iran have increased significantly, and while $2.28 per gallon doesn't seem much we should keep in mind that the average house hold income in the US is ~$40,000 while the average income in Iran is ~$7000 per year and falling. See our own post from January for the breakdown:
http://www.uskowioniran.com/2012/01/income-and-life-in-urban-and-rural.html
Mark it seems you are more worried about your wallet (By the way come to Europe and see the gas prices that the Europeans pay without moaning. on average 7-8 Us dollars) than the freedom of the Iranian nation.
ReplyDeleteThe Mullahs have the best opportunity to negotiate with Obama and his adm. especillay now that he has people like Kerry and most likely Hagel in his government.
Obama has with clever diplomacy (in contrast to Bush's neocons) have got the contries that matter (Not IRI 's irrelevant third world countries in Africa and Latin America) with him. Russia and China are using Iran in their political game and will sell the Mullahs if the price is right (which will be offered to them by the Americans if and when necessary)
If Khameneie doesn't change his mind (in 6-12 months after the next Iranian presidental election) I forsee an Arial Bombing campaign (No ground invasion) to destroy the Iranian nuclear facilities (and forget about the former US commander's warning about the Iranian assymetric capabilities. I remeber the same mantra about the Iraqi Army being the 4:th largset in the world during the first Persian Gulf war with 1 million soldiers and 250000 well trained Republican guard comming which did not stand more than 30 days) with the US now having developed even much more effective bunker buster weapons like the "Massive P. Ord"
The aim will not be regime change in Iran (Because that is not possible) but to delay the Iranian nuclear progrem. The Mullahs are after the bomb (as they think that North Korea has got away with it and they can too) The Americans and the west can not afford an Iranian atomic bomb and can not and will not allow it even if they have to pay a relatively big price (which they will) by attaking Iran.
The big loser will be the Iranian nation. Khomeini had the courage and Authority to "drink the poison chalice" Khamenei doesn't.
My question to you is:
Who do you see as the equvivalent of A "Deng Xiaopeng" in Iran at the moment who would start to negotiate with the Americans? Do you think the Nixon's admin. could have done the same with Mao? The Iranian leadership (the IRGC and khamenei) are hoping for a war against the US and the west to be able to cling to power and blame the missmanagement of the country and the economy on the war and eliminate any credible oppsition just like khomeini did during the Iran - Iraq war.
Well they will get their war soon (2014 is my guess) if they don't change their approach to the nuclear negotiations.
For my part, i would agree with almost everything you say except the intervention thing. many other including myself have posted documented paragraphs about both the military and geopolitical implications of a "blitz" surgical strike on Iranian facilities. Current American economy and posture in the region simply don't allow that to happen. Multiple Pentagon report since 2011 state the significant potential harm that US bases and interest in the region would be subjected to in the event any war goes hot. They will simply tighten the already biting screws around Iran's economy, and if they ever were to achieve "breakthrough" capability, China and Russia would follow suit this time, since they are no more interested in a nuclear-capable Iran that the rest of the western world. You cannot go to war with a country armed with thousands of modern ballistic weapons, whose effectiveness is now proven by most accounts, particularly in the past 2-3 years, so close to your interests. And that, even if they don't mean you cannot hammer this enemy on the mid-long run through cheer use of devastating force, while you're painfully trying to get out of another war that would be Afghanistan and its proximity to Iran... AS for Iraq, its paper-tiger status was more a media fabrication of its latest enemy to date in order go in with maximum capacity and justify large-scale deployment along with they allies, artificially inflating its capacities many folds while most of their army was known to be devoid of proper training to field their best assets was a requirement in that regard. It was rather a perfect testing ground for next-generation precision-guided weapons and depleted-uranium amunition against a country armed with export versions of Soviet equipment, not an actual balanced encounter of forces. Actually, Pentagon speaker and some retired member of congress keep telling that 2012 Iran is NOT 1991 Iraq, would it be only because of its greater population, terrain topography, country surface and its capacity to conduct in-depth defense of its high-value assets, or the scale of its rapidly-evolving military industry. None of these make Iran a viable competitor to the USA in a longer conventional war, of course, but any encounter will inevitably imply unacceptable losses for a relatively declining superpower in troubled economic times. Thus, they don't need to physically prevent Iran from obtaining military-grade nuclear capacities, when they can contain it even harder through providing a nuclear umbrella all around the country, officially leasing nuclear weapons to Turkey and GCC members near Iran (rumor has it Turkey already has long been having a couple of them). And no war has to come out of that. Iranian people, as usual, will be the ones bearing the rotten fruit of this situation....
ReplyDeleteAnn. 08.40
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comments. I am not sure if containing Iran will work. I am not sure if the Americans even need to offer their nuclear det. umberella to the states in the region. I believ that the Mullahs are rational and not crazy. (I would be more worried if I were an American president about Pakistan's nuclear devices.
If the Mullahs get their hands on a nuclear device (and I am sure they want to just like the shah did) it will be to change the strategic balance of power in the region.
Imagine how much bolder they would feel and how much more they would help the Hezbollah and Hamas with their petro-dollars and weapons / missiles.
An Iranian atomic bomb will change the geo-political and military balance in the region in a way that the west and the Americans can not accept.
I am sure that the Americans have enough reliable intelligence (and even the Israelis) to know that Iran is not close to the point of no return yet.
I agree with your analysis about the Iranian missiles and the proximity of the American bases in the region, but I think the Americans can overcome the worst part by a massive arial campaign and their missile shield. They have to pay a price, albeit a relatively heavy one but not delaying the Iranian bomb / stopping it would be even worse. I hope that I am wrong for the sake of the country but if this policy of not engaging with the Americans continue, I forsee a military strike on Iran.
Median household income in the US is approximately $50,000/yr.........
ReplyDeletean extra quarter-dollar for a gallon of gasoline is not going to be any big deal for people quite content to see US sanctions shatter the Iranian economy in the next year.
quite preferable to having to send the air force to drop bombs.
Actually contrary to the usual ignorance, the average US household income is about $36,000 and falling,and real unemployment about 20% and over 100 million on some sort of welfare, not to mention the 11-15 million illegals and a $17 TRILLION fiscal cliff and hawked to 200% of the GDP like Greece. US under Zionist control is the Bangladesh of the Americas, even Canada has a 30% higher per-capita now. The US economy is in free-fall since the idiotic wars post 2002 Zionist FALSE FLAG.
ReplyDeleteThe average American simply does not have purchasing power to handle much of any increase in household costs, let alone pay additional $1 a gallon due to Zionist inspired "sanctions" on an already deadbeat economy. US acts in a delusional and out of touch context, just like the "shah" in his dying days, and simply does not realize that economic power has moved to Asia and China is at the helm. Iran simply does not have any trade with the US worth mentioning and has found better substitutes in Asia. China and India are poised to be the world's largest economies and Iran is quite integrated with both. Japan is in recession since 80's and losing one million people due to racist xenophobia and aging population, so the markets for Iranian oil are in Asia and so are all the new contracts for oil.
US is only hurting its hapless population if it conceitedly thinks that Iran will somehow break, it sure as hell ain't happening or will happen. Even tiny resources poor island of Cuba with 10 million people and 60 miles off Florida was able to withstand US total embargo and sanctions since 1959. So really, unless Obama and the whole US congress is on Panama Red (most likely are)then what chance does the US have? These sanctions are literally destroying western economies as trade and investment simply moves to Asia and emerging markets in BRIC nations. Western banks are now mostly impotent as there are alternate fiscal mechanisms in Asia, Russia, South America, Africa etc, which easily by-pass Zionist controlled US Treasury or banks. Net result of sanctions is indeed the FOX/CNN fed US rusty pick-up driving redneck with a gun rack and Walmart minimum wage job, if he has one. Most poor Americans are on handouts and driving an average of 12 year old car, so these sanctions and oil prices do hurt them while they wave a MADE IN CHINA stars and stripes and suck-up Zionist Iranophobia. US is a total LOSER indeed.
where did you get the idea that household income in the US is $36,000?
Deleteit is not. it's around $50,000.
http://www.census.gov/prod/2012pubs/acsbr11-02.pdf
What are you on? Hallucinating like this?
ReplyDelete