Comment and Opinion
LA times: Trying too hard to deal with Iran, by Ray Takeyh
“Iran’s presidential election is again inviting speculation about which candidate can nudge the Islamic Republic toward moderation and pragmatism. Such conjectural games miss the point that the theocratic state is defined by an ideology that demonizes the West and relies on conspiracies to explain global affairs. The guardians of the Islamist state are emphatic in their belief that America harbors an enduring animosity not just toward their state but to the Muslim world. Its next president, drawn from the ranks of regime loyalists, is unlikely to temper this noxious political culture.
In pursuit of a diplomatic solution to the conundrum of Iran, Washington and its allies persistently ignore the fact that they are dealing with a deeply deformed political state. Its clerical oligarchs routinely spin conspiracy tales about how the real perpetrators of the 9/11 terrorist attacks have yet to be unmasked. This has to be considered a “sensitive” response compared to the Iranian elites’ denials of the Holocaust and depictions of the Jewish community.
It is the conceit of foreign policy realism that rhetoric is meaningless, and pragmatism is the essence of the game of nations. After all, the leading proponents of this school suggest, Soviet leaders and China’s Mao Tse-tung indulged in rash rhetoric and yet proved judicious custodians of their nations’ nuclear arsenals. Whatever Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s crimes may be, he is neither as reckless as Nikita Khrushchev nor a mass murderer like Mao. If the United States can contain one and celebrate making peace with the other, it is said, then it should cast aside Iran’s troublesome statements and proceed with diplomacy.”