How Iraq has cost us
I didn't recall this. (Also on BBC)
Post Iraq invasion, the Iranians, certainly cowed watching their neighbor so easily overwhelmed, wanted to talk, to ease the relationship, to reconcile. They were the supplicants.
Now, with the US in an Iraqi quagmire, the US is forced to go to Iran to ask for help with the Iranians defining the terms.
Enough said?
Before U.S.-Iranian relations deteriorated further, Iran made some conciliatory approaches to the Bush administration. In May 2003, Tehran offered to rein in Hezbollah, cooperate against al-Qaida and open its nuclear program for inspection, but was reportedly rebuffed at the insistence of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney.
Post Iraq invasion, the Iranians, certainly cowed watching their neighbor so easily overwhelmed, wanted to talk, to ease the relationship, to reconcile. They were the supplicants.
Now, with the US in an Iraqi quagmire, the US is forced to go to Iran to ask for help with the Iranians defining the terms.
Enough said?
posted by mikevotes at
10:09 PM
4 Comments:
And we should have believed them...right? Taken them at face value, knowing that their word was gold, and if they said, hey, we're giving up on nuclear, we should have believed that too.
Two words: North Korea.
Billy Bob Blowjob got them to sign a bunch of fancy papers saying that if we only gave them an autographed Micheal Jordan basketball and a few zillion dollars, they'd not go nuclear, either. Worked out well, didn't it.
By
Anonymous, at 10:05 AM
Umm, Dude?
I agree that any agreement should be handled with caution, but since we're going to them now and are going to trust them, wouldn't it have made more sense to have done so when we held all the cards?
The world is not binary. Every day in Iraq we deal with Iran to some degree. Your view is oversimplistic.
(And, under the Clinton plan for N. Korea, the N. Koreans did not produce any significant volumes of fissile material. The real amplification of their efforts only came after this administration abrogated the existing deal. They were headed towards a weapon, but very slowly which is better than the "plan" we have now.).
Mike
By
mikevotes, at 11:32 AM
Mike: Word!
By
sumo, at 12:19 AM
Thanks.
Mike
By
mikevotes, at 7:15 AM
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