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- Sanctions disproportionately affect the average Iranian, who feels that the U.S. is using his or her economic suffering for political purposes. The Suleimani killing is a propaganda boon for the IRGC, which can prey on generations of Iranian feelings of insecurity and suspicion of U.S. intentions. Current U.S. policy undermines the position of more pragmatic leaders like Rouhani, leaders who on some level understand that the soul of their revolution can no longer be protected by the IRGC but needs to be protected from the IRGC. The best way to undermine the IRGC is not by killing its leaders but by flooding Iran with dollars and Daft Punk – energizing the private sector and appealing to the cultural sophistication of the Persian people, one of the world’s oldest and most civilized cultures, a people held hostage by their reluctant embrace of a political regime that promised and delivered sovereignty at high cost.