Quote:
Originally Posted by detbuch
If you try to understand what Iran has to gain by filtering their thoughts and desires through YOUR brain, you will, in effect, decide what THEY want to gain by what YOU think it is worth it for them to gain. I don't think the leaders of Iran view life, the world, the way you, or I, or the West does. What they consider gain is probably worlds apart from our opinion.
[Filtered through our secular Western eyes] Iran and everybody else in the world, is basically like us. Go along to get along. Social justice, equality, everybody pursuing their individual dreams. Respect for the integrity of other nations. Hey, if Obama and Iran get together on a deal, the mullahs will recognize Israel's right to exist, correct?
Is it conceivable, in your mind Spence, that what Iran [its theocratic rulers] wants to gain is not only nuclear weapons but a stronger more secure face to the West, whom it considers an enemy to its values, and the power, through military might and powerful alliances to face down the West, even defeat it? [Isn't that what the Iranian leaders SAY]
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I don't think you have to look at the situation through any lens, there's plenty of history to establish likely motives and predictable actions.
Certainly the US and Iranian leadership differ on many values, but I think we've become mistakenly tuned to this idea that Iran's policy is driven by an irrational group of clerics and as such any effort to engage will only legitimize irrationality. Sure, Iran wants to be stronger but I don't believe they want to defeat the West. Hell, remember just after 9/11 they were actively engaged in helping the US target the Taliban as it was a shared interest.
This attitude will certainly just make things worse. Like it or not Iran is and will always be a significant component stability or chaos in the Middle East. Disengagement over the past 30 years doesn't seem to have helped and in fact has likely made things worse.