The Iranians, descendants of ancient Persia who brought the world chess and distinct musical syncopations, are not a stupid people.
Years ago an Iranian professor who studied and taught political science in Texas would appear on al-Jazeera's "Inside Story" from Iran. He was, incidentally, a loyal Dallas Cowboys fan. People like him advise Tehran about America and our election cycles.
Like 2024, 2026 may also be decided by America and Israel's Islamophobic misadventures in the Middle East.
Iran's multi-decade isolation by the West and constant threat of attack from Israel have informed their military-industrial complex to stockpile drones, rockets, and missiles. Iran produces so many drones that they sell them to Russia.
Without access to the numbers, I daresay Iran can probably continue launching drones and rockets at targets throughout the Middle East and outlast US and Israeli interceptor systems. Israel already reported a shortage of Arrow-3 interceptors.
Iran will continue counterattacking to hurt the Western economies (which they were kicked out of anyway).
Nota Bene: The Bosnian Serb Army was initially running roughshod over the Bosnian Army in the 1992-95 Civil War, suffering fewer casualties than the Bosniaks. After the BiH Army was armed with Western armaments and the Bosnian Croats allied with them, Bosnian Serb casualties started to mount and the war started to become unpopular with Serbian families back home. This helped bring them to the Dayton Peace Accords (DPA).
As a DPA Compliance Monitor, I met a Bosnian Serb military veteran who rolled up his shirt and showed me several bullet hole scars on his torso, just like the Preacher in the film Pale Rider. I was astounded he was alive. This Serb was the angriest man I ever came across during my several missions to the Balkans.
"Look! Look at me! And still the Bosnian Serb government doesn't send me money or someone to help me after all the promises they made to me and everything I went through! Look at my hut! See how I live? Ptooey!"
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More: Altogether, Powell said, central bankers see "a degree of stability" in the labor market.
"But the thing that I think a good number of people on the committee are concerned about is just the very, very low level of job creation," Powell said in a press conference following the Fed's decision to hold interest rates steady.
"Effectively, there's zero net job creation in the private sector," after accounting for revisions over the past six months, Powell said. "But actually, that looks like that's about what the economy needs, in terms of dealing with very, very low " nonexistent, really " growth in the labor force, which of course we've never had in our history."