"Fire sale", it's a myth anyway. It can't be done – Live Free or Die Hard (2007)

Iran’s Bad Week: A Real-World “Fire Sale”

Over the past two weeks Iran has been hit by a rapid-fire mix of kinetic strikes and cyber operations that knocked out broadcast studios, darkened large parts of the internet, froze flights, torched gas infrastructure and punched holes in the banking system. The tempo, breadth and timing echo the movie idea of a single coordinated attack designed to paralyze a nation’s critical functions.

What Makes a “Fire Sale”

In fiction a fire sale unfolds in three waves – first communications, then transportation, finally financial systems – creating cascading failures that overwhelm crisis managers. The events in Iran followed a strikingly similar arc:

Pillar	What happened
Communications	Israeli airstrike hit the Islamic Republic of Iran News Network headquarters live on air, forcing anchors off camera and setting the building ablaze.
Internet	National connectivity repeatedly dropped by 50-90 percent as authorities imposed shutdowns while hackers probed networks.
Finance	The Israel-linked group Predatory Sparrow stole and “burned” roughly $90 million from the Nobitex crypto-exchange and claimed it wiped Bank Sepah’s core data, leaving services down nationwide.
Energy	Drone or missile strikes ignited fires at the South Pars gas field and forced a partial shutdown; Kharg Island oil exports stalled and global crude prices jumped.
Transportation	Iran closed its airspace and regional carriers diverted or cancelled flights after the first night of strikes, freezing civilian aviation.

“Nine Meals from Anarchy” – Why Timing Matters

Journalist Alfred Henry Lewis warned in 1906 that society is only “nine meals from anarchy” – about three days of empty shelves before order unravels.

A fire-sale style campaign pushes an adversary toward that cliff:

• Fuel shortages from gas-field and depot fires hinder food transport and refrigeration.

• Flight bans and road closures interrupt just-in-time supply lines.

• Bank outages and crypto freezes limit cash access, complicating retail distribution.

Each domain amplifies the others, accelerating the march toward those nine missed meals.

How the Playbook Serves Israel’s Stated Goals

Independent analyses describe Israel’s current campaign – codenamed Operation Rising Lion – as aiming to: degrade Iran’s nuclear program, drain regime resources, erode public confidence and delay retaliation.

Israeli objective	Fire-sale effect
Neutralize nuclear and military networks	Simultaneous cyber and air strikes disrupt command, research and resupply channels.
Sap economic resources	Damaging oil, gas and banking infrastructure slashes revenue and raises recovery costs.
Undermine public confidence	Visible failures across TV, banks and utilities signal regime impotence.
Delay counter-strike planning	Leadership is forced to focus on restoring essential services rather than launching missiles.

Strategic Takeaways

1. Multi-Domain Convergence – The blend of cyber theft, data-wiping, physical strikes and broadcast disruption shows how digital and kinetic tools can reinforce each other.

2. Cascading Logistics Risk – Hitting energy first magnifies effects on transport and food supply, accelerating the “nine-meal” timeline.

3. Psychological Leverage – Real-time TV chaos and empty ATMs carry more political weight than a silent server room hack.

4. Precedent for Future Conflicts – Other states (and non-state actors) will study this playbook, raising the bar for civil-military resilience worldwide.

Iran’s crisis is still unfolding, but the past two weeks illustrates how close a modern nation can be pushed toward systemic failure when every critical sector is struck at once – turning a Hollywood plot device into a real-world strategy.