Sunday, March 12, 2006
My Hitchy-Poo Does it Again
Survey Says - Let the exchange of trade and ideas with Iran begin. By Christopher�Hitchens: "So, picture if you will the landing of Air Force One at Imam Khomeini International Airport. The president emerges, reclaims the U.S. Embassy in return for an equivalent in Washington and the un-freezing of Iran's financial assets, and announces that sanctions have been a waste of time and have mainly hurt Iranian civilians. (He need not add that they have also given some clerics monopoly positions in various black markets; the populace already knows this.) A new era is possible, he goes on to say. America and the Shiite world have a common enemy in al-Qaida, just as they had in Slobodan Milosevic, the Taliban, and the Iraqi Baathists. America is home to a large and talented Iranian community. Let the exchange of trade and people and ideas begin! There might perhaps even be a ticklish-to-write paragraph, saying that America is not proud of everything it is has done in the past�most notably Jimmy Carter's criminal decision to permit Saddam to invade Iran.
The aging mullahs might claim this as a capitulation, which would be hard to bear. But how right would they be? The pressure for a new constitution and genuine elections is already building. Within less than a decade, we might be negotiating with a whole new generation of Iranians. Iran would have less incentive to disrupt progress in Iraq (and we should not forget that it has been generally not unhelpful in Afghanistan). Eventually, Iran might have a domestic nuclear program (to which it is fully entitled and which would decrease its oil-dependency) and be ready to sign a nonproliferation agreement with enforceable and verifiable provisions. American technical help would be available for this, since it was we who (in a wonderful moment of Kissingerian 'realism') helped them build the Bushehr reactor in the first place.
Just a thought."
What must it be like to be in the room as he does that thinking thing?
First of all, you must read the whole article. He relates an amazing exchange with a woman in Iran that is indicative of our real problem in Iraq.
Secondly, I haven't a clue neither whether his suggestion is satirical nor whether it is possible if he is being thoughtful. I am certain that the suggestion that Bush make Carter out to be a dope was indeed not satirical. In fact, he is probably wondering why that is not done more frequently.
Lastly, whether serious or not, Hitchy always makes us think. What a great gift!
The aging mullahs might claim this as a capitulation, which would be hard to bear. But how right would they be? The pressure for a new constitution and genuine elections is already building. Within less than a decade, we might be negotiating with a whole new generation of Iranians. Iran would have less incentive to disrupt progress in Iraq (and we should not forget that it has been generally not unhelpful in Afghanistan). Eventually, Iran might have a domestic nuclear program (to which it is fully entitled and which would decrease its oil-dependency) and be ready to sign a nonproliferation agreement with enforceable and verifiable provisions. American technical help would be available for this, since it was we who (in a wonderful moment of Kissingerian 'realism') helped them build the Bushehr reactor in the first place.
Just a thought."
What must it be like to be in the room as he does that thinking thing?
First of all, you must read the whole article. He relates an amazing exchange with a woman in Iran that is indicative of our real problem in Iraq.
Secondly, I haven't a clue neither whether his suggestion is satirical nor whether it is possible if he is being thoughtful. I am certain that the suggestion that Bush make Carter out to be a dope was indeed not satirical. In fact, he is probably wondering why that is not done more frequently.
Lastly, whether serious or not, Hitchy always makes us think. What a great gift!
