It is rare for one nation to defeat another without resorting to war. But events in Iran have presented the United States an unprecedented opportunity to effect “regime change” without firing a shot.
Riots in multiple Iranian cities have brought over 100,000 protesters into the streets. The traditional chants of “death to America” and “death to Israel” have been replaced with “death to the dictator,” referring both to president Rouhani and the supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei.
This is a sea change in public self confidence in standing up to the murderous regime.
Beset by a host of problems, from shortages of fresh water, to a gravely weakened currency, the regime has responded by buying more armaments funneling millions of dollars into Syria’s civil war, where their proxy terrorist thugs, Hezbollah, are at work. None of the $150 billion released by President Barack Obama to the regime seems to have trickled down to improve the life of ordinary working-class Iranians, and they have noticed.
Iran has a “soft underbelly” in that it is wholly dependent on foreign air carriers for international air travel. IranAir, their national carrier, is forbidden by the EU from flying into their air space due to the dangerously decrepit state of their aircraft.
The total cessation of the aerial lifeline would throw the entire Iranian nation into chaos. No passenger travel, no tourism, no air freight, disruption of government travel, including diplomats and the more nefarious agents of terror that Tehran has planted around the globe.
In addition, incoming traffic by unscrupulous European businessmen, who have no legitimate reason to be trading with a terrorist regime anyway, would come to a grinding halt.
It is entirely within the capacity of the United States to impose such an embargo unilaterally. Our government can at will bestow landing rights upon any airline, and withdraw them. To defeat Iran’s regime, merely announce that any airline which serves our self-declared mortal enemy will immediately lose its landing rights in the United States. And as a secondary matter, any airline servicing an airline which, in turn, serves Iran, will also lose its landing rights in the U.S.
Take Lufthansa, the greatest offender. It has 21 ports of call in the U.S. Would Lufthansa be willing to risk all that revenue in order to continue landing in Tehran? There’s contest. For that matter, would Aeroflot surrender all the tourist revenue it derives from its 16 U.S. ports of call, just to stick a thumb in the eye of the U.S.? It’s doubtful.
We have the power to collapse the Iranian terrorist regime from within. Iran declared war on the U.S. when the radicals overthrew the Shah in 1979. Seizing our embassy was an act of war. Their continuing threats to destroy the “Great Satan” (us) and the “Little Satan” (Israel) should be taken seriously. After all, this same regime sacrificed tens of thousands of child soldiers in futile attacks during its war against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. Given a nuclear capability, you can be sure they will use it.
If the Department of State and the Trump administration effectuate this embargo, Iran’s terrorist regime will perish of hypoxia.
Larry Odhner was a foreign policy specialist during the Reagan administration, serving at Voice of America and the U.S. Information Agency.
