Diplomacy's Boring, Can We Blow Stuff Up Yet?- Pt. II

An update to the last entry on our beginning diplomatic talks with Iran-

AP: 6 world powers agree on Iran incentives

Six world powers agreed Thursday to offer Iran a new choice of rewards if it gives up suspect nuclear activities or punishment if it refuses, a gambit that could either defuse a global confrontation with the Islamic regime or hasten one.

"There are two paths ahead," British Foreign Secretary Margaret Becket said in announcing agreement among the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China on a package deal for Iran that carries the threat of United Nations sanctions.

The package would be on the table for a proposed new round of bargaining with Tehran over what the West calls a rogue nuclear program that could produce a bomb. The U.S., in a major policy shift, agreed this week to join those talks under certain conditions. It would be the first major public negotiations between the adversaries in more than a quarter century...

It looks like we're playing nicely with others so far. We're growing up.

I also wanted to reprint this comment that I found on a Huffington Post news item (about John "Recess" Bolton talking tough on Iran), which gives a great history of post-WWII Iran and our relationship with it. This is not to justify the current regime or their rhetoric, but merely to highlight their complicated history and how we often create international messes under the foolish notion that we're serving our national interests along the way. So here it is-

History lesson: The U.S. and Britain staged a coup in 1953 against Iranian Premier Mohammad Mossadeq, overthrowing an elected official of a sovereign nation. In his place, the U.S. installed a corporate puppet, the Shah. The Shah was a brutal dictator who ran Iran with the same kind of totalitarian tactics familiar to Soviets. During that time, hundreds of thousands of Iranians made their escape, many coming to the U.S. Most of those people still have family back in Iran, innocent Iranians who want nothing more than to live in peace.

As a result of our incessant meddling in Iranian affairs, a groundswell of hatred eventually led to the toppling of the Shah and the installment of Iran's current, oppressive theocracy. True, a lot of people were fooled by Khomeini, thinking he was a Ghandi-like figure. Obviously he was not and neither are Iran's current rulers. Yet the truth about Iranian society is far more complex and nuanced than you are clearly too intellectually lazy to discover.

Iranians are not Arabs. They are Persians. They have an amazing history of scientific invention and literature. Iran is a beautiful country with cities as familiarly metropolitan as many in Europe. It has a very substantial and growing movement of younger citizens tired of the ruling theocracy. Unlike other nations, Iranians are not cowards. They will eventually take care of their own house.

The problem with dipshits like Bolton and Bush is that by inflaming tensions with Iran they keep giving power to Iran's tyrants, which has the tandem effect of undermining all domestic opposition in Iran. So in effect, Bush and Bolton are aiding Iran's tyrants.

And get this: if you think Iran will be a "cakewalk" like Iraq then you have another think coming. Iranians are fiercely proud. Iran is not an artificial construct of a country, as is Iraq. The Iranian army is better-equipped, better financed, better armed and more motivated as a result of their past dealings with Britain and the U.S. to put up the fiercest of fights.

So if we cannot afford or are not prepared to go the distance in another ground invasion using our already stretched forces, are you proposing we just murder thousands of innocent Iranians in some carpet bombing scenario? Is that the macho cowboy way?

Do you honestly believe that we can change the regime by effecting that kind of chaos? You don't have a clue what the reality will be if Bush starts this fight. Well here it is:

We will lose. We will again have a Vietnam-like defeat, on top of the unfolding Iraq disaster, to eradicate the morale of our armed forces, which in turn will dissuade a huge percentage of potential military recruits. If Bush invades or attacks Iran he will be forced to reinstate the draft. That is a fucking guarantee.

Now you loudmouths, are you prepared to put on your fatigues and fight Iranians in the streets of Tehran or are you just going to keep bloviating on these blogs about how tough you are? Right....

I think that says it all.

Sadly, such complicated history lessons are not something the current administration have ever taken into consideration... The mere idea that the country has people in it is probably not something the Cheney/Rumsfeld crew considers. It is all an means to an end for them.

[Related reading- Bush and Iran: Lessons from the Cuban Missile Crisis]