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Iran Just Feels Insecure, Big Hug Needed and It's Bush's Fault
Only an outfit like Time Could Make This Shit Up.
How to Make Tehran Blink
The best way to prevent a nuclear Iran is for America to offer the kind of security assurances that might reduce support for a nuclear arsenal.
By Scott D. Sagan - Newsweek International
Sept. 4, 2006 issue - Given Tehran's defiant response to the European and American effort to constrain its nuclear program, it is time for bolder diplomacy out of Washington. U.S. President George W. Bush should take a page from the playbook of Ronald Reagan, who negotiated with an evil Soviet regime—competing in the war of ideas, but addressing the enemy's security concerns through arms-control agreements.
Yes, let's be bold. the Mad Mullahs are just like the Old Soviet Union. Sheesh, Bush is soooo stupid.
Iran's intransigence is both deeply unfortunate and perfectly predictable. It is unfortunate because Tehran's refusal to suspend its uranium-enrichment operations immediately—as demanded in July by the U.N. Security Council in a legally binding resolution—suggests that Iran is moving more quickly than expected toward a nuclear-weapons capability. Tehran has now turned the nuclear crisis into a test of the whole U.N. Security Council system. And Russia and China's current position, threatening to veto any biting sanctions against Iran, suggests that the Security Council may well fail this crucial test.
Yes. It's a crucial test of the UNSC. It's sad and unfortunate and stuff. They couldn't help reacting this way for the last 3 years. I'm tearing up, here. *sniff*.
Tehran's response is predictable, however, because the offer on the table contains both inadequate economic carrots and barely credible threats of sanctions and military force. The carrots appeared impressive at first glance—in return for a suspension of enrichment we reportedly promised to provide light-water nuclear reactors and to help Iran with civil aviation and telecommunications technology. But we did not offer the one incentive that might possibly work, security guarantees that could reduce Iran's desire for nuclear weapons.
They say they want nukular power, but they really just want Big Hugs from Bubba Bush.
This omission is striking. The Iranian government can't talk openly about their security concerns because that would blow their cover story that the nuclear program is only for energy production. And Washington does not want to discuss such worries because it wants to keep open the possibility of removing the regime by force. "Security assurances are not on the table," U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice too cleverly argued this spring: "It is a little strange to talk about security guarantees ... I thought the Iranian position was that they weren't developing a nuclear bomb."
They lied because, well because they had to. They're just scared and stuff. They lied for 3 years cuz we're so scary. It's our fault for being so scary. Condi's black boots were just too much.
This is partly a crisis of our own making, as the Bush administration has practiced the reverse of Teddy Roosevelt's maxim—speaking loudly and carrying a small stick. Think about how Tehran reacted when Bush stated (in his second Inaugural Address), "The rulers of outlaw regimes can know that we still believe as Abraham Lincoln did: 'Those who deny freedoms to others deserve it not for themselves; and, under the rule of a just God, cannot long retain it." Or when Bush dramatically told reporters last April that "all options are on the table," in direct response to a question about whether he was considering a nuclear attack against Iran. Such statements only encourage Iran to develop a nuclear deterrent quickly, before the United States can carry out its perceived aggressive intent. Last month, Iran's National Security Council Secretary Ali Larijani pointedly complained about such rhetoric. "How can a side that wants to topple the regime also attempt to negotiate?"
I blame Bush. Not at all like TDR. Bad Bush, bad. They're scared - and confused, now, too. Bad Bush, bad. If only you could've been like TDR and stuff, none of this would've happened.
Given the current vulnerability of U.S. forces in Iraq, the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, and the lack of Israeli success against Hizbullah, Iranian officials seem confident that they face no immediate threat of a U.S. military assault. But they are clearly worried that Bush just might attack Iran right before he leaves office in January 2009, or that his successor might do so once U.S. forces withdraw from Iraq.
Okay, meme time. Though we're so toothless and all, they're still scared and worried and stuff. Bush might still hurt them. He's purdy evil. And sneaky, too. Lookout Mullahs!
The best way to prevent a nuclear Iran is for Washington to offer the kind of security assurances that might reduce support in Tehran for building a nuclear arsenal. It will be hard to make such assurances credible, but a public U.S. promise to take forcible regime change off the table, and a U.N. Security Council commitment to protect the "political sovereignty" of Iran could help. Involving the Security Council could also pull China and Russia back into the nonproliferation coalition and enhance the U.N.'s legitimacy.
Yep. More carrots, less scary stuff, and Big Hugs. It's our job to convince them, cuz they're all scared and stuff. And as for the Ruskies and ChiComs, well, they're really just trying to be good UN members. If we stop being so, uh, bad and stuff they'll be good. We're preventing the UN from being all legitimate and stuff. It's our fault. Bad America, bad.

There, all done. Nothing to be alarmed about, it was only a brain enema.
Posted by: Threatch Unons6270 2006-08-27
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=164212