Blue Skies in Camelot (Continued): An Alternate 80s and Beyond

[Shockeye7665]

Didn't Iran commit to Non-Alignment? I'd think the years under the Shah would leave a bad taste for any co-operation with America for a while.

Well, President Kennedy did manage to get a bill authorising financial and military aid successfully passed through Congress, and even if the Democratic Republic of Iran might still harbor desires for non-alignment (for the memories of 1953 and the American support for the Shah would still be fresh in their minds), at this point, they'd probably can't afford to turn away such aid like this (which I'm presuming would include the destroyers that in OTL became the Kidd-class destroyers, three Tang class submarines, and around 150 F-16s that had been ordered in 1976 in OTL, or wild thought but I like it really so much, the Iranians receive the Northrop F-20 Tigershark, an aircraft which has been regarded as one of the best fighters that never made it into production, which would work well in replacing their F-5 Tigers).

And of course, Yazdi has to maintain a delicate balancing act between maintaining friendly relations with the US and fulfilling the desire for non-alignment.
Of course, he could try to ensure that Iran could obtain other military aid from other countries, such as France (might be a no-go since France equipped Iraq with a lot of their equipment: Mirage F1 fighter jets, Alouette, Gazelle, Puma, Super Frelon helicopters, Panhard AML armoured cars, Roland surface-to-air missiles, Exocet anti-ship missiles, not to mention helped establish the Osirak nuclear reactor and Kari, an automated C2 computer system operating Iraq's integrated air defense system), West Germany, the Netherlands and maybe the UK, while increasing efforts to ensure Iran's domestic defense industry can be built up to ensure less of a reliance on foreign arms for Iran in the long term.

But what would be most interesting is the United Arab Republic experiment with Saddam in charge.
Namely, he'd be wise to encourage on developing much further links between Syria and Iraq (or at least integrate them to such an extent that Syria can't pull out even if they want to), maybe having plans to develop an extensive railway network between Iraq and Syria (like a railway from Baghdad to Damascus), as well as more road links between the two former countries, for Saddam could probably see benefit in having ports in the Mediterranean, like the port of Latakia for example (not to mention that there is a Soviet naval facility in Tartus), rather than be stuck with bases in the Al-Faw peninsular, which confines the former Iraqi Navy in the Persian Gulf against the larger Iranian Navy. In fact, having Mediterranean ports could inspire Saddam to order more frigates and even submarines for the UAR Navy, which of course could spell trouble, if Saddam ever thinks about turning his eyes towards Kuwait and TTL's Gulf War happens.......

 

[historybuff]

Another excellent update.

 

[Shockeye7665]

So, @President_Lincoln, some questions if I may:

In the world of Blue Skies in Camelot, what is the state of supersonic transport? Does Concorde still exist along with the Tu-144? And did the Americans manage to get the Boeing 2707 up and running, or did that still get cancelled, and instead Concorde received large orders from more airlines here (for the likes of Pam Am, Continental Airlines, American Airlines, United Airlines, Eastern Airlines, TWA, Qantas, Air Canada, Lufthansa and Japan Airlines had put in orders for Concorde, only to cancel them by around the 70s)? And speaking of which, is it possible for Pan Am to survive past 1991 in this timeline, like they merge with a domestic US airline (which had been in the plans since the 1930s), and prevent their bankruptcy?

 

[Nishimura89]

So, @President_Lincoln, some questions if I may:

In the world of Blue Skies in Camelot, what is the state of supersonic transport? Does Concorde still exist along with the Tu-144? And did the Americans manage to get the Boeing 2707 up and running, or did that still get cancelled, and instead Concorde received large orders from more airlines here (for the likes of Pam Am, Continental Airlines, American Airlines, United Airlines, Eastern Airlines, TWA, Qantas, Air Canada, Lufthansa and Japan Airlines had put in orders for Concorde, only to cancel them by around the 70s)? And speaking of which, is it possible for Pan Am to survive past 1991 in this timeline, like they merge with a domestic US airline (which had been in the plans since the 1930s), and prevent their bankruptcy?

Hopefully, in this timeline, although expensive, the Concorde could remain in use until the late 2000s as a prestigious service by both French and British national airlines, and that the idea of supersonic travel would prove enticing enough to inspire various companies to submit proposals for making such aircraft more affordable and efficient. Given the obvious military applications, I would also think that the US Air Force, following the trend, will develop successors to the venerable SR-71 Blackbird.

 

[Nishimura89]

But what would be most interesting is the United Arab Republic experiment with Saddam in charge.
Namely, he'd be wise to encourage on developing much further links between Syria and Iraq (or at least integrate them to such an extent that Syria can't pull out even if they want to), maybe having plans to develop an extensive railway network between Iraq and Syria (like a railway from Baghdad to Damascus), as well as more road links between the two former countries, for Saddam could probably see benefit in having ports in the Mediterranean, like the port of Latakia for example (not to mention that there is a Soviet naval facility in Tartus), rather than be stuck with bases in the Al-Faw peninsular, which confines the former Iraqi Navy in the Persian Gulf against the larger Iranian Navy. In fact, having Mediterranean ports could inspire Saddam to order more frigates and even submarines for the UAR Navy, which of course could spell trouble, if Saddam ever thinks about turning his eyes towards Kuwait and TTL's Gulf War happens.......

While I despise Saddam and especially his two horrible progenies, I would rather have Arab Ba’athism doing better in this world's Middle East than reactionary Islamic fundamentalism. At least that particular ideology are secular and do believe in socialist ideals and, to some small extent, women's rights. It is a choice on which group of b$%#&*ds are less horrible. Personally, if I had to choose which country should collapse in this timeline, either the UAR or Saudi Arabia, it would be the Saudis.

 

[aksolute]

While I despise Saddam and especially his two horrible progenies, I would rather have Arab Ba’athism doing better in this world's Middle East than reactionary Islamic fundamentalism. At least that particular ideology are secular and do believe in socialist ideals and, to some small extent, women's rights. It is a choice on which group of b$%#&*ds are less horrible. Personally, if I had to choose which country should collapse in this timeline, either the UAR or Saudi Arabia, it would be the Saudis.

Iran, even if they're fighting the UAR, will need it to act as a buffer between it and Saudi Arabia which probably will go off the rocker with the Wahhabism like in OTL.
It will have to be Ba'athist, and preferably undemocratic, cause the territory it occupies is ethnic alphabet soup.

The thing is, who will lead the country if Saddam is out, definitely not Assad, Tariq Aziz, maybe?

 

[aksolute]

Iran, even if they're fighting the UAR, will need it to act as a buffer between it and Saudi Arabia which probably will go off the rocker with the Wahhabism like in OTL.
It will have to be Ba'athist, and preferably undemocratic, cause the territory it occupies is ethnic alphabet soup.

The thing is, who will lead the country if Saddam is out, definitely not Assad, Tariq Aziz, maybe?

But butterflying Islamic extremism in its modern-day form would need a POD at WW1, so we can only minimize it.

 

[Nishimura89]

Iran, even if they're fighting the UAR, will need it to act as a buffer between it and Saudi Arabia which probably will go off the rocker with the Wahhabism like in OTL.
It will have to be Ba'athist, and preferably undemocratic, cause the territory it occupies is ethnic alphabet soup.

The thing is, who will lead the country if Saddam is out, definitely not Assad, Tariq Aziz, maybe?

But butterflying Islamic extremism in its modern-day form would need a POD at WW1, so we can only minimize it.

Agreed. It's sad that a one-party totalitarian state is the only thing that kept that entire place stable, but unfortunately, that's the truth. As for Saddam's successor, as long as it is neither Quasay nor Uday, it would be acceptable.

And yes, I also agree that Islamic fundamentalism can only be minimized. Which is why, hopefully, in this timeline, the West, especially the United States, would work to free themselves from dependence on Gulf-controlled oil and that civilian solar as well as nuclear and coal power in the West would be more extensive than OTL.

Note: For the record, personally, while I do believe that renewable energy is the future, energy independence needs a firm foundation, which is why I'm also pro-nuclear and pro-coal.

 

[Shockeye7665]

Hopefully, in this timeline, although expensive, the Concorde could remain in use until the late 2000s as a prestigious service by both French and British national airlines, and that the idea of supersonic travel would prove enticing enough to inspire various companies to submit proposals for making such aircraft more affordable and efficient. Given the obvious military applications, I would also think that the US Air Force, following the trend, will develop successors to the venerable SR-71 Blackbird.

Hmmmm, well regardless, I still hope at least for maybe Concorde to receive more orders from more airlines, my favourite candidates being Pan Am (which I'm hoping will be able to survive past 1991), Qantas, Air Canada and Japan Airlines (personally some people say that the Concorde would not be ideal for crossing the Pacific from say, LAX to Tokyo, but I reckon that if the Concorde could make a temporary stop at Honolulu, it'll be able to reach Japan).

As for the successor of the SR-71 Blackbird (which I actually hope remains in service longer, especially from that it won't suffer from Robert McNamara's decision in 1968 to cancel the F-12 interceptor program, in which the specialised tooling to create both it and the SR-71 was destroyed as part of that decision), well, it would need to have supercruise ability.