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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group
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To: JohnM who wrote (18468)2/10/2002 1:30:43 PM
From: Hawkmoon  Read Replies (2) of 281500
 
Making an enemy of Iran — much less attacking it, even surgically — would have the effect of rallying the Iranian public behind the conservative clerics of the Islamic regime led by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Hmmm... I wonder where the NYT has been for the past 20 years. Iran's extremist government has declared themselves our sworn enemy for two decades now.

And making these extremists the focus of our attention may actually do Khatami more good, depending upon how we handle it. Young Iranians have no more desire to revisit the bloody days of repression any more than did the Afghanis. Iran has been one of the more modern societies in the Persian gulf until Khomeini and his Ayatollahs came to control the country's security apparatus and government.

And with Putin apparently willing to provide support to the US war, there might be some willingness to create the circumstances for a more moderate regime to assume greater power in the country. And with US forces in Afghanistan, and our ability to influence events there with our cash, that's a huge border that has now become exposed to potential covert activities in support of internal dissident factions within Iran.

But it is Iran's extremists who have been spouting their "great satan" rhetoric against the US for 20 years and perpetuating this tension. The only way to defeat it is to provide the people of Iran the ability to overcome the repression and realize their dreams. And for a young population in Iran, this can be a powerful message, if presented properly.

Bush's words were a warning shot across the bow, not a declaration of war.

Hawk
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