Reality Departs Once More, For Shores Unknown

Despite the outbreak of reality-based strategy in Iraq, don't think that the US is ready to accept reality in other places - like right next door, Iran. In an article about Iran's nuclear ambitions, this summary of America's bargaining power:

Only the United States can offer incentives Iran wants, such as normalising U.S. ties broken after Iran's 1979 revolution and security guarantees for Iran, which frets about U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and at bases in the Gulf, analysts say.

Washington has signaled its readiness to join in by dropping opposition to Iran's World Trade Organization accession talks. But a U.S.-Iranian "grand bargain" may still be some way off when Washington accuses Iran of sponsoring terrorism.

"They don't want to legitimise what they view as a fundamentally illegitimate regime," said Kupchan.

The Soviet Union, which threatened the United States with destruction for forty years, continued to be recognized as a legitimate government throughout that period. Japan recognized Communist China in 1972, never mind that Mao "Nuke 'em all and let me sort them out" Zedong was still in power. But in the petulant world of the Bush administration, not liking someone is a good reason to risk Iran getting the bomb.

Hell, Kennedy was willing to guarantee that the US would not invade Cuba to defuse the missile crisis, and we're talking about something of a similar scale here. But instead of compromise and reason, we're getting the US government endangering it's European and Israeli allies just so Bush doesn't have to learn how to pronounce "Tehran" properly.

Here's a tip - once the government has been in power for decades, plural, you no longer get a vote on whether or not the government is "legitimate". Deal with it.