i’m glad you liked it…
it is hard to find genuinely unbiased discussions for either side, this is about as good as it gets.
What you also have to consider is that US military efforts are not staged in isolation. They are interelated to foriegn policy (obviously) but also trade policy and currency issues. It is impossible to assume anything about iran, iraq, the impending election etc. without considering India, Japan, China, Russia etc. and the role they play and how they are also fighting back non-militarily to support their allies (iran).
Iran is essentially the drug-dealer of choice for these nations. You may not like your drug dealer, but if he has the good shit and he’s close and you have a long term coke-habit you bet your ass you are going to defned him against the po-po if you can.
When you bring other nations into the fold and consider their needs you start to piece together the key issues of the macro-economic landscape. They are inherently intertwined.
What i find very intersting about that article in addition to the subject matter is that you read it and you think someone wrote is last year or this year… it’s actually almost 6 years old and the predictions or strategic alternatives presented are playing out now… some of which have clearly already happened which should solidify the credibility of the piece.
Then consider that the paper was not written under a motive of profit or to convince. It is a paper written for peer-scholar review that happened to find it’s way on-line 4 years after it was written.