File this one under delusion liberal/progressives dopes. Friedman is arguing that, if Obama wins, he will be able to negotiate with Iran with a bat, because of the low price of oil, leading to
After all, it was the collapse of global oil prices in the early 1990s that brought down the Soviet Union. And Iran today is looking very Soviet to me.
As Vladimir Mau, president of Russia’s Academy of National Economy, pointed out to me, it was the long period of high oil prices followed by sharply lower oil prices that killed the Soviet Union. The spike in oil prices in the 1970s deluded the Kremlin into overextending subsidies at home and invading Afghanistan abroad — and then the collapse in prices in the ‘80s helped bring down that overextended empire.
Last time I ventured into Reality Land©, it was Reagan and his military build up, or threatened build up (think SDI, ie, Star Wars), that killed the Soviet Union, because they could not keep up monetarily, and it allowed States like Poland to have a peaceful revolt. Eh, you know the story. Only Liberals/Progressives refuse to acknowledge what The Gipper did. Heck, some of them credit Carter. Snicker.
Seriously, there is so much wrong with those 2 paragraphs that I do not have time to write it all up, and you do not want to read the 40 paragraphs I could write in response.
