Screwing the Pooch on Iran

Slate.com has an article that underscores how we screwed the pooch with Iran.

Our biggest foreign policy mistake with Iran comes down to this: Reacting to what they say now and what they did 28 years ago instead of what they do now.

Iran is not the same country that it was 28 years ago. To foment aggression based on old wounds is to exploit a painful past to the detriment of our future.

Iran is now comprised of a majority too young to remember the hostage crisis and the events leading up to it. These young people want to participate in the new global economy. They are ripe for the picking with our "western ways," if you will.

Iran is the ascendant powerhouse in the region. We should deal with them in a manner befitting their ascendancy instead of our current approach consisting of nothing more than jingoism and shortsightedness.

Instead of finessing our relationship with Iran, like we should be doing, we cultivate relations with the Middle East of the past--Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

The new center of gravity in the Middle East has moved further east to Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.

Bush's reliance on his puerile loyalty to the Middle East of the past shows his incompetence. He has elevated his personal relationship to Saudi Arabia, but at what cost?

The interests of the United States do not coincide with the current administrations reliance on faltering networks and antiquated collegiate notions of loyalty.

Hopefully, the next president has a better plan than "buddying up," because continued reliance on unreliable friends and belligerence plays into the hands of the extremists.