Reply #37: "Bullying Iran" from the IHT......a sane viewpoint/editorial

[Gloria]

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/02/01/opinion/ediran.php

February 1, 2007

Bullying Iran
....

In what passes for grand strategy, the president's aides say he is betting that bloodying Iranian forces in Iraq, and raising the threat of a wider confrontation, will weaken Tehran's regional standing and force its leaders to rethink their nuclear ambitions. Never mind that Bush's last big idea — that imposing democracy on Iraq would weaken Iran's authoritarians — has had the opposite effect.

Bush seems to be grossly misreading Iran's domestic politics and ignoring his own recent experience. In a rare moment of subtlety, the Treasury Department has quietly persuaded some banks and investors to rethink their dealings with Tehran. That has made some in Iran's permanent religious elite — already worried about future oil production — express doubts about President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's defiance of the Security Council.

As ever, the one tactic the administration is refusing to consider is diplomacy. Bush has resisted calls to convene a meeting of Iraq's neighbors to discuss ways to contain the crisis. There is no guarantee that Ahmadinejad can be persuaded that Iraq's further implosion is not in Iran's interest. But others in Tehran may have clearer heads. And any hope of driving a wedge between Iran and Syria will have to start by giving Damascus hope that there is a way in from the cold.

Bush's bullying may play well to his ever shrinking base. But his disastrous war in Iraq has done so much damage to U.S. credibility — and so strained its resources— that it no longer frightens America's enemies. The only ones really frightened are Americans and America's friends.