|
WORD COUNT
618
FEBRUARY 4, 2009
TIME TO
TREAT IRANIANS LIKE REAL FOLKS – by Col. Richard Klass
A chess
grandmaster once said that tactics are what you do when there is
something to do and strategy is what you do when there is nothing to do.
When it comes to U.S. policy toward Iran, this is not the time for
tactics. It is the time for a strategic reassessment of our approach to
Tehran.
The Middle
East is one of the most interwoven political webs on the globe.
Everything is connected to everything else. In six months, the region’s
politics could be very different than they are now. Iraq will hold
perhaps half a dozen elections, which began with provincial elections
last month and may include a future referendum on the U.S.-Iraq security
agreement. There will be elections in Israel and perhaps the West Bank.
The crucial Iranian presidential election will take place in June. This
political flux will require constant adjustments in U.S. policy.
The
relationship between the United States and Iran will be the axis around
which our Middle East policy spins. It is time to break free from the
myopia that has characterized U.S.-Iran relations for half a century.
Americans who have not followed developments in this part of the world
still tend to see Iran through the lens of the 1979 hostage crisis. Iran
is seen as dictatorial (largely true), revolutionary (not very true),
and ayatollah-controlled (not totally accurate).
Most
Americans are unaware of the fact that the largest pro-American
demonstration in the Middle East after 9/11 was in Tehran. Many also
don’t know that Iran was helpful in overthrowing the Taliban in
Afghanistan and that the Iranians wanted to have comprehensive
discussions on critical issues – including Israel – with the United
States in 2003, but President George W. Bush rejected the overture.
Similarly,
many Iranians see the United States through the same ancient lens of
British-American exploitation of Iranian oil and the 1953 CIA effort to
overthrow a democratically elected government and install the Shah. It
is not a coincidence that the American-engineered coup was planned in
the same U.S. embassy that was attacked by Iranian students 26 years
later.
To help
soften these hardened attitudes, the United States should open a
diplomatic interests section in Iran, as well as promote cultural and
student exchanges. Such changes will take time, but so will any
U.S.-Iranian negotiations on substantive issues. In the meantime, both
sides should choose their words carefully so as not to make matters
worse. The United States should avoid talking about “carrots and sticks”
as if we are dealing with a donkey and not a proud country. “Quid pro
quo” is a better phrase in a language, Latin, still not quite as old as
Persian.
How we
exit Iraq will play a large role in U.S.-Iran relations. Pentagon plans
to sell frontline tanks and aircraft to Iraq may be seen as trying to
repeat the 1980s attempt to use Iraq as a military counterbalance to
Iran. This makes no sense when Iraq has a Shia dominated government that
has significant ties to Iran. Such a strategy is unlikely to achieve
U.S. interests in the region.
The bottom
line is that Iran is still years away from having a deliverable nuclear
weapon if it chooses to pursue one. In other words, there is nothing for
the United States to do right now except craft the right strategy.
President Barack Obama should follow through on his campaign promise to
conduct
direct
diplomacy with Iran on the nuclear issue, without preconditions.
The United
States cannot afford to get its Iranian strategy wrong. We should take
the time needed to get it right. If we successfully rethink our
approach, we may avoid the tough decisions that are sure to come later
if we simply maintain the Bush administration’s trajectory.
--
Richard
Klass is a retired United States Air Force colonel and a board member of
the Council for a Livable World, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group
that works to stop the spread of nuclear weapons. Visit the council
online at
http://livableworld.org/.
# # # # #
|
