Last week my group was assigned to look at the comments made by Flynt Leverett in the debate regarding Iran. His attitude was the we needed to engage Iran and that there were no other options. He believed that this would mark an historical event and compared it to Nixon going to China during the seventies. The act of Nixon going to China, seperated China from the rest of the communist countries of the time period. This singled them out as a good guy and someone that all of the United States' allies could trust. The same could be done to Iran, Leverett argues. This could seperate Iran and show the rest of the world that this volatile, unstable country is worth having diplomatic relations with. This would seperate Iran from the rest of the countries that the average American thinks is harboring terrorists. The move would help the United States in the region while also calming the feuds in the region.
Based on the article that I found and from my own thoughts, does the United States and the rest of the world really have another choice? The comparison the Leverett made between China and Iran is accurate, but what happened as a result may scare the people opposed to Iran. That move gave China serious economic and political power. They are on the verge of becoming a serious super power for a long duration of time. I do not think that leaders around the world are ready to give that amount of power to Iran. Last class we talked about how strong Israel became due to the recognition of its country by other powers around the world. The United States recognizing Iran would supplement all of the other countries in the world. The power that United States recognition has in limitless. However, I do not think that the world has a choice.
Iran's president,Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has become a hero to other Muslim countries and to his people. He is starting to be portrayed in the media as a savior and as a good person. Also, Iran has been put under sanctions for more than 30 years. They have a strong leader who understands what his competition is trying to do to him. He understands the power he can yield if Iran becomes the tenth country with nuclear capability. That is why the world has no choice, but to engage Iran. Their power is on the verge of becoming mighty and they are not going to stop until it is. If the United States engages Iran it will bring validity to everything that they have been working for. The best part for Iran is that the United States may not have a choice.
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2010/993/re7.htm
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The U.S should engage Iran, yet they must realize that Iran is very different from China. They must deal with two figure heads, the President and the supreme leader. Khamenei, thus far, has proven to be much harder to talk with. The man has blantanly said peace talks are very far off. Levert, also mentioned that Iran has a leader that is capable of a huge change but the problem is does American? We as Americans may feel that we do, but it matters more the Iran feels that way too. Yet, Khamenei has expressed his dissapproval of Obaman's approach and comments. Consquently, this could be the sole factor in preventing talks from ever happening.
ReplyDeleteAlso, it intresting how the president has long since been portrayed as the bad guy yet the tide is changing. However I wonder if that is due to his recent actions or because the title of bad guy has since shifted to Khamenei? Yet, it is intriguing that it isn't the President of Iran who is "standing up" to the U.S but rather Khamenei so why is he not being reguarded as a hero? After all it is Khamenei who is emphasizing his disapproval of western influnces throughout the middle east.