Iran: taking lessons from past successes

It's interesting that as much as McCain claims to have the upper hand on foreign policy issues, he doesn't seem to grasp what more and more experts are openly saying, and what's becoming clearer every day: that the we-don't-talk-to-Iran approach has failed and that there are serious precedents to encourage US engagement with Tehran.

Newsweek interviewed Amitai Etzioni, a professor of international affairs at George Washington University and author of "Security First: For a Muscular, Moral Foreign Policy" on how the US should react to Iran's recent missile test(s). Etzioni claims that "the Bush administration should be willing to sit down and talk to Tehran's leaders--even without any commitment from them to stop Iran's nuclear program" pointing out how the same approach worked on both Libya and North Korea.

Engaging with Iran would not be appeasing, it would be talking to them to try and reach our goals: for them to stop their nuclear program and their support for terrorism. The rhetoric coming out of the current administration and the McCain campaign is that we'll attack them any day - of course they're scared. But now they're beginning to show signs that they might be willing to sit down with the US. By talking to them directly, we might find that what they really want is a promise not to topple their regime. And we'd be willing to offer that to them, in exchange of our two goals mentioned above. Asked if that's an offer the Iranians would reasonably accept, Etzioni responds:

They would get what they would really want most, which is a promise for us not to topple their regime, in exchange for them to discontinue their program. It's certainly a plausible deal that Libya made and it looks like North Korea is making. This is not some kind of liberal fantasy. It's happening, and I think at least we should offer it to them. And what would be the downside?

Really interesting interview, also touching on the ever-so-interesting topic of democracy vs. security in the Middle East. I encourage you all to read it.