I have read some interesting reviews on The Devil We Know: Dealing with the New Iranian Superpower by Robert Baer (released in 2008) so I decided to purchase a copy of his book to see how it compares to my analysis of future events as I describe them in Living in the Age of the Ram and the Goat. Robert Baer is a former CIA operative that has actually been in Iraq and Iran and I thought his first-hand accounts described in his book could enlighten me on the reality of the events in the Persian Gulf “un-filtered” by the U.S. media.
As a reminder here is a short description of events that I describe in my book. 1.) The Kurds and Iran form an alliance that represents the two horns of Daniel’s ram. 2.) The Kurd/Iran alliance takes over Iraq and then invades Turkey and Saudi Arabia. The following are some quotes from Robert Baer’s book supporting the potential for these events to occur:
Page 25-“The Saudi’s are terrified the United States will abandon Iraq, and Iraq’s chaos will then spill into Saudi Arabia. They’re also terrified about an Iranian invasion [my emphasis]… If and when the Americans do go, the Saudis are convinced the entire Gulf will fall to Iran.”
Page 39-“The Shia [the Muslim sect in Iran] would then become the guardians of Islam’s holiest city, Mecca.”
Page 39-“I didn’t ask why he wasn’t worried Iran would just annex Iraq. The Sunni Iraqis I’d talked to over the last couple days had made up their minds that Iran had already started.”
Page 50-“Iraq is the first place in Iran’s quest for hegemony, a reminder to the world that the Persian Gulf has that name for a reason.”
Page 111- “Iran may not yet have nukes, but it has three things that are vastly more important: highly developed asymmetrical fighting skills and weapons; a growing army of hungry, disaffected, street-smart fighters; and an invincible anticolonial message. With that, Iran has set the stage for its push toward empire-a push they’ve already begun. The next target: Turkey.”
Page 113-“With time, though, Iran started to look across sectarian lines, to the Sunnis-notably, to the Sunni Kurds.”
Page 113-“Iran’s shadow takeover of a small piece of Iraqi Kurdistan in the mid-nineties is a perfect metaphor for Iran’s evolving tactics and strategy.”
Page 114-“While the rest of the world dismissed Greater Kurdistan as strategically insignificant, Iran saw that the Kurds sit astride at the most strategic areas of the world- a crossroads between Iraq and Europe, between the Arab Peninsula and the Caucasus, between Iran and Europe.”
Page 115-“There’s something else that makes this dark narrative even darker: In spite of industry and OPEC claims, the Persian Gulf is running out of oil [Could this be the motivation for Iran’s future plans to control the Persian Gulf?]. Its true reserves may be half of what we’ve been told they are, a radical recalculation that alters all other calculations.”
While I don’t agree with Mr. Baer’s conclusions on how to deal with Iran in the last chapter, I highly recommend you read his book. I think it gives an accurate picture of what is in our future in the Persian Gulf.
Check out my book at Living in the Age of the Ram and the Goat at www.ramandgoat.com
Thanks,
Darren Thompson
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