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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| The Region: Just be our friend |
| 2008-10-05 |
| In response to a casual question, US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates dropped a historical bombshell, an offhand remark telling more about how the Middle East works than 100 books. And a former US Marine commander added an equally big revelation about long-ago events quite relevant for today. Almost 30 years ago, president Jimmy Carter tried to show what a nice guy he was by pressing the shah of Iran not to crush the revolutionaries. After the monarch fell, national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski met top officials of the new Islamist regime to pledge US friendship to the government controlled by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. At the time, I wrote that by approaching some of the milder radicals, the administration frightened the more militant ones. US-Iran relations must be smashed, they concluded, lest Washington back their rivals. In fact, as we'll see in a moment, the Carter administration offered to back Khomeini himself. Three days after the Brzezinski meeting, in November 1979, the Islamist regime's cadre seized the US embassy and its staff as hostages, holding them until January 1981. This was our introduction to the new Middle East of radical Islamism. Carter continued his weak stance, persuading the Teheran regime that it could get away with anything. So we've long known that undermining US allies, passivity toward anti-American radicals and inaction after a massive terrorist act against Americans doesn't work. The hostages were only released because Iran was suffering desperately from an Iraqi invasion and feared Carter's successor, Ronald Reagan, as someone likely to be tougher. THE LESSON of being strong in defending interests and combating enemies has not quite been learned. Today, the mainstream prescription for success is just the opposite, and the US may be about to elect a president whose world view parallels the way Carter worked. Here's where Gates comes in. On September 29, while giving a lecture at the National Defense University in Washington, someone asked him how the next president might improve relations with Iran. Gates responded: "I have been involved in the search for the elusive Iranian moderate for 30 years." Then Gates revealed what was actually said at Brzezinski's meeting, in which he has been a participatant, summarizing Brzezinski's position as follows: "We will accept your revolution... We will recognize your government. We will sell you all the weapons that we had contracted to sell the shah... We can work together in the future." |
| Posted by:g(r)omgoru |
| #3 I guess Barry Rubin didn't get the memo that Israel is supposed to be in the tank for Obama. g(r)omgoru, are you securely in the tank? |
| Posted by: Classical_Liberal 2008-10-05 21:03 |
| #2 Note that this is the same Mr. Brzezinski who's one of Obama's foreign policy advisors; the rest of his cadre is not much better. If you have heartburn with "Condi" now, my Russo-Israeli friend, "you ain't see nothing yet". |
| Posted by: Milton Fandango 2008-10-05 20:11 |
| #1 "and feared Carter's successor, Ronald Reagan, as someone likely to be tougher." Boy, is that an understatement. The Iranians were scared spitless of Reagan, who everyone let them know would mop the floor with the Mullahs if given half a chance. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2008-10-05 20:00 |