The Wall Street Journal today carried two
important pieces about our approach to Iran.
One was a report that Secretary of Defense Robert
Gates is in the region trying to console, reassure our Arab clients allies, that we won't suck up to reach out to Iran at their
expense.
Given Iran's desiderata, it's a
zero-sum game, possibly a negative-sum game. Helping Iran take a role in
regional affairs necessarily entails limiting our own role, allowing the mullahs
to help shape events to their liking. These regimes are not to their
liking, but can probably be bypassed for the moment at Iran targets Lebanon, Egypt, and other potential and current US allies of actual significance.
Gates also said that the emirs had nothing to worry
about since, in all likelihood, the administration's overtures would be met by a
"closed fist."
It's not the closed fist I'm worried about, it's
the joy buzzer. Iran is easily savvy enough ato use negotiations and the
appearance of openness to jolly us along until, one morning, look at that, a
bomb! Wow, what a coincidence; we were just talking about that. Where
did that come from? And where did all those Europeans allies
go to? In fact, Amir Taheri makes an excellent case that this is exactly what
they have been doing.
More transparently, it puts the initiative in
Iran's hands, or fists, relying on them not to be smart enough to make their
best play when indeed they already are.
When your best response is, "don't worry, they
won't be smart enough to discern our good intentions," you can bet that 1) they
already have, and 2) it's not particularly reassuring to your
allies.
It ought to be even less reassuring to us.
It ought to be even less reassuring to us.
