Advice for What the Next U.S. President Should Do About Iran - The Diigo Meta page

• 11 May 08
  

  Cercamon Joglar

  Iran USA

  • The
    only way to be sure of preventing Iran's acquiring a nuclear weapon
    capability is to reject those calling for military action--and
    to negotiate a comprehensive settlement of all outstanding
    disputes between Iran and the USA, such that both sides can resume
    normal relations on a basis of mutual respect at least, and friendship
    if possible.
  • after Baghdad fell to the coalition in spring 2003, the
    Iranian government sent the US (via the Swiss government) a proposal for
    talks toward a 'Grand Bargain' that promised resolution of the nuclear
    dispute, and de facto Iranian recognition of Israel. The Bush
    administration ignored the proposal, and rebuked the Swiss for passing
    it on.
  • 4 more annotations...
  • • A range of observers, from Paul Wolfowitz to the son
      of the last Shah, from the dissident Akbar Ganji to the Nobel prize
      winner Shirin Ebadi, have warned against military action, favoring instead
      allowing Iranians to develop freer, more truly representative government
      themselves, without outside interference.
    • The history of Iran over the last two hundred years is in part a history
      of increasing popular anger at foreign interference in the country,
      building on an ancient Shi'a Muslim aversion for the arrogance of power.
    • Iran is an old country, with a pride in its history and culture that
      goes back more than three thousand years, and that culture has been
      influential around the world in ways that many Americans and Europeans
      today have simply no idea of. It is a culture that puts a high value on
      education and intellectual attainment.
    • Is that
      crucial generation of young Iranians going to be permanently alienated
      from Western values by ill-judged Western military action? Or will it be
      encouraged in its pro-Western instincts by a determined US policy of
      reconciliation that can draw the Iranian regime into a response in kind?
      My profound hope is that the next president of the US will choose the
      latter.

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