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The Saturday Night Live Theory of U.S.-Iran Relations
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/07/iran-nuclear-deal-isis/397604/
The Saturday Night Live Theory of U.S.-Iran Relations
“I’m not a vegetarian because I love animals. I’m a vegetarian because I hate plants.”
Kathy Gilsinan Jul 2, 2015
<snip>
“One of the most important reasons Iran is signing this deal, in my opinion ... is not actually sanctions,” said Vali Nasr, the dean of Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. “It’s ISIS. There is actually support for this deal within the Revolutionary Guards in Iran, because their day job is right now fighting ISIS, and they need the United States, particularly in Iraq, on the right side of that fight.”
<snip>
Iran’s fear of ISIS is itself a paradox insofar as Iran helped create the conditions for the group’s rise through its support of both the regimes of Bashar al-Assad in Syria and Nouri al-Maliki in Iraq. “Iran is both the arsonist and the fire brigade in the Middle East,” Sadjadpour said. And as far as U.S. support for the Iran-backed militias confronting ISIS in Iraq is concerned, Sadjadpour said that “it’s an open question whether partnering with Shia radicals to kill Sunni radicals creates more Sunni radicals than it eliminates.”
Given the costs of this kind of tactical cooperation with Iran, and the endurance of strategic enmity regardless, does it make sense for the U.S. to keep trying to engage the country? More than Kissinger, it’s a 1980s-era Saturday Night Live cast member who may have best explained the U.S. relationship with Iran—in explaining his own diet. “I’m not a vegetarian because I love animals,” Sadjadpour quoted A. Whitney Brown as saying. “I’m a vegetarian because I hate plants.”
“Our engagement with Iran, dialoguing with Iran, shouldn’t be considered a gift to the regime itself because we like them,” he continued. “In fact these hard-line elements in Iran really don’t want to be engaged; they thrive in isolation.”
<snip>
The Saturday Night Live Theory of U.S.-Iran Relations
“I’m not a vegetarian because I love animals. I’m a vegetarian because I hate plants.”
Kathy Gilsinan Jul 2, 2015
<snip>
“One of the most important reasons Iran is signing this deal, in my opinion ... is not actually sanctions,” said Vali Nasr, the dean of Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. “It’s ISIS. There is actually support for this deal within the Revolutionary Guards in Iran, because their day job is right now fighting ISIS, and they need the United States, particularly in Iraq, on the right side of that fight.”
<snip>
Iran’s fear of ISIS is itself a paradox insofar as Iran helped create the conditions for the group’s rise through its support of both the regimes of Bashar al-Assad in Syria and Nouri al-Maliki in Iraq. “Iran is both the arsonist and the fire brigade in the Middle East,” Sadjadpour said. And as far as U.S. support for the Iran-backed militias confronting ISIS in Iraq is concerned, Sadjadpour said that “it’s an open question whether partnering with Shia radicals to kill Sunni radicals creates more Sunni radicals than it eliminates.”
Given the costs of this kind of tactical cooperation with Iran, and the endurance of strategic enmity regardless, does it make sense for the U.S. to keep trying to engage the country? More than Kissinger, it’s a 1980s-era Saturday Night Live cast member who may have best explained the U.S. relationship with Iran—in explaining his own diet. “I’m not a vegetarian because I love animals,” Sadjadpour quoted A. Whitney Brown as saying. “I’m a vegetarian because I hate plants.”
“Our engagement with Iran, dialoguing with Iran, shouldn’t be considered a gift to the regime itself because we like them,” he continued. “In fact these hard-line elements in Iran really don’t want to be engaged; they thrive in isolation.”
<snip>
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