Let's Use Our Best Weapon Against Iran:

Posted by Cenk Uygur at 12:37 PM on December 20, 2006.

Why do we never learn? Why can't we learn anything from our experience in Vietnam? In Vietnam, we saw what we did wrong, but even more importantly, what we did right.

It turns out invading a country that isn't a real military threat to you and trying to suppress a hostile local insurgency is not the right way to go. Who could have seen that coming? Color me surprised.

But ultimately, we're winning in Vietnam. President Bush was in Vietnam recently talking about how much progress they're making. Not the kind of progress we're making in Iraq, real progress.

Why is Vietnam friendlier to us now? Why are they not a threat to their neighbors or to world peace? Why are they a trading partner? One word...

... capitalism.

Coke, McDonald's and Levi's have done more to convert Vietnam to our way of thinking than any of our bombs ever did. The Vietnamese would have resisted us for the next one hundred years if we kept up our military assault. But they were no match for Burger King.

Freedom and capitalism have wonderfully corrosive effects. Once they get in your bloodstream, you can't get them out. We should let them do our dirty work for us.

The model we have used with China is far more effective than the model we used with Iraq. In China, we engaged them, opened them up for business - and now they're screwed. Who thinks China is still communist? They pretend they are, but in fact, they are now the largest capitalist country in the world.

With economic freedom, eventually comes political freedom. This has not come to fruition in China and Vietnam yet, but it is on the way. It's an unstoppable freight train. Once people taste freedom - as Pepsi would say - they gotta have it!

Perhaps even more important than political freedom is world stability. It isn't that democracies don't start wars -- as George Bush claims -- after all, we started one with Iraq for no apparent reason. It's that capitalist countries don't go to war with one another. Why? Because it's bad for business. Slows down trade.

Once you shift power down from monarchs or dictators who can gain power by more land acquisition down to business owners who lose power by disrupting business with trading partners, war becomes less likely. I am sure there are exceptions to this rule because of old ethnic hatreds and other unstoppable forces, but over all, the rule stands.

What would China or Vietnam gain by attacking someone else now? Not much. What would they lose in business opportunities? A lot. Capitalism works.

So, now we are faced with a decision in Iran. Do we go with the military approach, which Dick Cheney and his neo-clown buddies can't wait to implement? Or do we go with the wiser course of beating them with capitalism?

We have never lost a war of ideas. When the United States set up the United Nations there were only 15 democracies in the world. There are now over 100. We thought we could work with the world in building democracies throughout the globe. We were right.

After World War II, our allies wanted to punish our defeated enemies. We had the revolutionary idea of building them back up so that they would be our allies. We were right.

The Soviet Union thought they had a better political system than us. They thought communism would take over the world and vanquish capitalism. They were wrong. We were right.

I am not saying military campaigns never work. There is, unfortunately, a time for war. But this is not it. We see the disastrous consequences of going to war when you don't have to. And luckily, there is a better way. Let our ideas win.

Ahmedinejad's party just got trounced in local elections in Iran. He was booed at a speech last week inside his own country. Over 50% of Iran is under the age of 25. They want freedom. They want french fries and Coca Cola. They want nice American jeans and the internet. They want to see Paris Hilton and Britney Spears party together. Let them have it.

If you bomb them, they will have to fight. They will revert to nationalism and be forced to support their fundamentalist leaders. If you engage them, their leadership has no chance in the long run. None. They will be wiped off the face of the earth. Without a single bullet fired.

Our ideas are the most powerful weapons we have. They work. We just have to give them a chance to work. Inject any country with free trade, economic freedom and capitalism. Sit back, relax and enjoy the show.

Please, for once, let's learn from what we have done wrong and what we have done right in the past. Let's find a new way forward with Iran. Instead of using our bombs, let's use our brains for a change.

Cenk Uygur hosts the Young Turks.