Iran Warns US to Stay Out of Persian Gulf, or Else.

[Atheist-Lite]

As to the US having balls, I'd rather call it sense. Bush sent the US military in Iraq mostly to provide side benefits to Halliburton, Blackwater, and other cronies of his veep. The Afghan thing was pure idiocy, as the current state of things ten years later shows well...

The initial year or two of limited intervention incapacitated Al Qaeda core, which was arguably a good idea. Sticking around after that was questionable, and the 2009 escalation and attempts at nation building since were, yes, idiotic.

If you want the oil and don't want to pay for it then why use messy, costly war? The British Empire was built on the opium trade and smallpox blankets.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/rea ... h-smallpox

Metaphorically smallpox blankets, metaphorically trade....westerners carried countless diseases that native peoples hadn't immunity to...

[Gawdzilla Sama]

And vice versa.

[Atheist-Lite]

And vice versa.

Undermine their social fabric, corrupt their youth with cheap anti-authoritarian music....it may take a little longer than dropping a MOAB but you have a consumer market and intact relations afterwards?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

And vice versa.

Undermine their social fabric, corrupt their youth with cheap anti-authoritarian music....it may take a little longer than dropping a MOAB but you have a consumer market and intact relations afterwards?

A pair of Levis cost a month's pay in Moscow circa 1975.