The Islamic "Soviet Union"?
Iran Pursues A Grand Bargain
It seems to me a lot of the rhetoric Ahmadinejad has been spewing has been just that: rhetoric. His comment (for example) of wiping Israel off the map is, in my mind, akin to Kruschev banging his shoe on the table in the UN and saying they (the USSR) would crush us.
And yet, nothing ever happened.
Why am I making this analogy? Because of President Bush's (so far) reactions to Iran. It seems to me that he's treating this as a Cold War issue: with his own bluster as well.
I also mention this because of the article I'm linking to. Iran "...offered to accept a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine, to rein in Iranian support for what the United States considered terrorist groups, cooperation with the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan and against al-Qaida, and to join a comprehensive security agreement with the countries of the Persian Gulf. This would include an agreement to exclude nuclear weapons, which in effect suggested that Iran was prepared to suspend its nuclear program." This was a formal offer. Iran had even offered to put its nuclear program under even closer scrutiny than is standard pracice by the IAEA.
All Iran wanted in return was this: "In return, Iran wanted full diplomatic recognition from the United States along with a suspension of U.S. sanctions and an agreement to drop plans for regime change and support for groups opposed to the Iranian regime."
I see nothing wrong with this.
Therefore, all this is really nothing more than Iran just looking for a little respect. If this offer was sincere, I can begin to understand why many Muslims (and plenty of jihadists) contend that the US is in a cultural "crusade" against Islam. Because the ONLY reason I see that the US still won't form diplomatic ties with Iran is because of the 1979 revolution and subsequent hostage crisis.
That was over 26 years ago.
I should note, in closing, that I'm not the only one who has compared Iran to the former Soviet regime. I may have linked to it or not in my blog, but I remember seeing an article discussing Iran using proxies like Hezbollah (while also trying to make Iraq a proxy country) in the same way the USSR had it's communist "bloc" of eastern Europe countries.
I probably haven't stated these opinions eloquently enough to shed enough light on the possible thought processes behind the leaders of the US and Iran, but I hope to have at least started a pretty good theory here. It really does seem to me to be like Cold War rhetoric.
It seems to me a lot of the rhetoric Ahmadinejad has been spewing has been just that: rhetoric. His comment (for example) of wiping Israel off the map is, in my mind, akin to Kruschev banging his shoe on the table in the UN and saying they (the USSR) would crush us.
And yet, nothing ever happened.
Why am I making this analogy? Because of President Bush's (so far) reactions to Iran. It seems to me that he's treating this as a Cold War issue: with his own bluster as well.
I also mention this because of the article I'm linking to. Iran "...offered to accept a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine, to rein in Iranian support for what the United States considered terrorist groups, cooperation with the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan and against al-Qaida, and to join a comprehensive security agreement with the countries of the Persian Gulf. This would include an agreement to exclude nuclear weapons, which in effect suggested that Iran was prepared to suspend its nuclear program." This was a formal offer. Iran had even offered to put its nuclear program under even closer scrutiny than is standard pracice by the IAEA.
All Iran wanted in return was this: "In return, Iran wanted full diplomatic recognition from the United States along with a suspension of U.S. sanctions and an agreement to drop plans for regime change and support for groups opposed to the Iranian regime."
I see nothing wrong with this.
Therefore, all this is really nothing more than Iran just looking for a little respect. If this offer was sincere, I can begin to understand why many Muslims (and plenty of jihadists) contend that the US is in a cultural "crusade" against Islam. Because the ONLY reason I see that the US still won't form diplomatic ties with Iran is because of the 1979 revolution and subsequent hostage crisis.
That was over 26 years ago.
I should note, in closing, that I'm not the only one who has compared Iran to the former Soviet regime. I may have linked to it or not in my blog, but I remember seeing an article discussing Iran using proxies like Hezbollah (while also trying to make Iraq a proxy country) in the same way the USSR had it's communist "bloc" of eastern Europe countries.
I probably haven't stated these opinions eloquently enough to shed enough light on the possible thought processes behind the leaders of the US and Iran, but I hope to have at least started a pretty good theory here. It really does seem to me to be like Cold War rhetoric.
posted by xanadian at 9:23 AM
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