Reuel Marc Gerecht continues what is proving to be his relentless push for war with Iran. At this point, the only coherent argument I can distill out of the agit-prop on his side is that conservatives want to see Iran bombed viciously, to have their infrastructure degraded to a tremendous degree, to set them back from the power gains they've made as a result of the failed states on their eastern and western borders. Those states are Iraq and Afghanistan. And while it's unlikely that sincere outreach to the Iranians will be so fruitful that we wind up with a new ally in the region, it's much less unlikely that sincere outreach to the Iranians will forestall what would be the unheard of consequences of having another demolished enemy country on our hands. Obviously Gerecht disagrees.
The only good news here is that it will be difficult for the clerical regime to continue talks with the United States even though doing so is manifestly in its interest. When Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, recently said, "Those who imagine that the Islamic Republic of Iran will change its established, logical and defendable policy of forswearing negotiations and relations with the United States are seriously in error," he was being understated. It wouldn't be the first time that clerical Iran had refrained from doing what was in its best interests.
It's just not possible, it seems, for him to imagine that what's "manifestly" in the interest of Iranians might also be in our interests, too. The example he cites to prove the folly of engagement is North Korea. And while I don't exactly want to use our relationship with North Korea as a yardstick for how diplomacy should be conducted, it is worth pointing out that even in the face of bad-faith negotiations on both sides, and Pyongyang's rising nuclear ambitions, something funny has happened. We've begun the slow process of growing accustomed to the idea that nuclear proliferation to countries like North Korea is pretty much inevitable, and, as such, we haven't gone to war with that country. That's also "manifestly" in our interest.
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