The Devil We Know: Dealing with the New Iranian Superpower Audiobook (Free)

Over the past thirty years, while the United States has turned either a blind or dismissive eye, Iran has emerged like a nation just as capable of altering America’s destiny as traditional superpowers Russia and China. Certainly, one of this book’s central arguments is that, in some ways, Iran’s grasp on America’s upcoming is also tighter.

As ex-CIA operative Robert Baer masterfully displays, Iran has maneuvered itself into the elite superpower ranks by exploiting Americans’ fake perceptions of about The Devil WE REALIZE: Coping with the brand new Iranian Superpower what Iran is-by letting us believe it is a country work by scowling religious fanatics, too preoccupied with theocratic jostling and terrorist agendas to strengthen its political and economic foundations.

The reality is much more frightening-and yet within the potential catastrophe is an implicit political response that, if we’re bold enough to look at it, could avert disaster.

Baer’s on-the-ground sleuthing and interviews with important Middle East players-everyone from an Iranian ayatollah to the ruler of Bahrain to the head of Israel’s internal security-paint a picture of the centuries-old Shia nation that is starkly the contrary of the one normally drawn. For example, Iran’s hate-spouting Leader Ahmadinejad is by no means the true spokesman for Iranian foreign policy, nor is definitely Iran making it the highest priority to become nuclear player.

Even so, Baer has found that Iran happens to be engaged in a very soft takeover of the center East, the fact that proxy method of war-making and co-option it perfected with Hezbollah in Lebanon is being exported throughout the region, that Iran right now controls a significant part of Iraq, that it is extending its impact more than Jordan and Egypt, that this Arab Emirates and various other Gulf States are being pulled into its sphere, which it will quickly have a firm hold on the world’s oil spigot.

By combining anecdotes with information gleaned from clandestine resources, Baer superbly demonstrates that Iran, far from being a wild-eyed rogue state, is a rational actor-one skilled in the overall game of nations therefore able to thwarting perceived American colonialism that actually rival Sunnis relish fighting with each other under its banner.

For U.S. policy makers, the choices possess narrowed: either cede the world’s most significant energy corridors to a country that can match us militarily with its asymmetric capabilities (which include the usage of suicide bombers)-or cope with the devil we know. We might simply discover that in allying with Iran, we’ll possess increased not only our own protection but that of most Middle East nations.The alternative-to continue goading Iran into establishing hegemony on the Muslim world-is too chilling to contemplate.