Reddit reviews The Devil We Know: Dealing with the New Iranian Superpower

If anybody has read books by Robert Baer, I'd recommend "The Devil We Know"

Baer suggests that replacing our regional Allies in the ME (Israel & Saudi) with Iran could potentially be the play that breaks the stupidity cycle in our foreign policy.

I've been saying this for ages... I know we think we are hot shit, but with as many silkworms as Iran has even if we tried we could not stop them. Any military action against Iran is likely to lead to an immediate barrage of silkworms against all major oil facilities within range, including the KAAOT, Suadi Arabia, etc. Oil would go to a minimum of 200/bar, and even that is pretty much garunteed depression for the US. When are we going to realize that Iran is probably the best genuine chance we have at maintaining stability in the area, unless we want to be there for the next 100 years or so that is...

Bob Baer has a really good book about Iran, if you are interested in the situation I highly suggest it. link

We’ve known about this for 10 years at least. There were cities in Iraq that American soldiers could walk around in without armor because Iran wanted them to remain peaceful. If you want a great book on Iran, read The Devil We Know by ex-cia officer Robert Baer. It was published in 2009 though so it won’t have the last ~ 10 years of current history but frankly, that’s probably the least important bit anyway.

https://www.amazon.com/Devil-We-Know-Dealing-Superpower/dp/0307408671

People like writer and former CIA agent Bob Baer have been advocating dropping the Gulf Arabs states for some time as allies. They treat us like shit and fund terrorism, not mention they are all despotic assholes perfectly comfortable with slavery. In one of his books he advocates moving towards Iran as the dominant regional power and makes a decent case for why an alliance with them might make more sense. With how the fight against ISIS is progressing, I've been wondering if he isn't on to something.

I would point you to this book. It's a great read that explains in detail why Iran doesn't need nuclear weapons to achieve its regional goals. The conclusion argues that West has been itching to go to war with Iran and they are trying to scare the public into backing one. Iran knows this and they know that any action that could be seen as attempting to achieve weapons capability would be all the west needs to go in and destroy them. Contrary to popular opinion, Iran is a rational actor on the world stage unlike those who argue that they are willing to die if it meant taking down their "enemies."

Iran never betrays their allies unlike the US. They always support their allies no matter what, look at their support for Hezbollah - even while they were fighting a dificult battle with IDF, Hamas - despite being heavily outgunned by israel and Iran not achieving much by supporting them, Syria - even when it looked like Damascus would fall and the Syrian government will never win. Iran has always been consistent and in more cases than not turn out to be successful because of their perseverance. Check out former CIA operative Robert Baer's book about Iran; The Devil We Know: Dealing with the New Iranian Superpower