Walter Russell Mead does quite a bit of throat-clearing before finally getting to the point of his most recent Wall Street Journal column:
The Middle East is on fire today because the Biden administration’s core regional strategy—to reach some kind of détente with Iran—has catastrophically failed. Iran, closer every day to nuclear weapons, is at the point of upending the regional balance of power even as its Houthi proxies have largely blocked trade through the Red Sea. Meanwhile, the Taliban’s humiliation of the U.S. in Afghanistan, the shock of Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel, and the success of jihadist movements across much of Africa have combined to breathe new energy into global terror networks.
The past 50 years teach that strategic failure in the Middle East destroys presidencies. As the White House scrambles to respond to Iran’s latest attack on American forces, let’s hope it recognizes how high the stakes have become.
I don’t believe that any strategy or any negotiation with any country can be successful without taking several things into account:
- We have interests
- They have interests
- Those interests are inconsistent
- We cannot simply dismiss Iran’s interests even when they’re in conflict with ours
What are Iran’s interests? It has nationalistic interests, of course. The mullahs wish to preserve their authority and they want to exert influence in the Muslim world, the Middle East in particular.
What are our interests? I think nearly all of our interests in negotiating with Iran simply dismiss Iran’s interests.
We have heard that Iran is getting closer to nuclear weapons since the 1990s. They arent really that hard to make. N Korea has them as does Pakistan. Tired of hearing this argument.
Steve
The U.S. objective should be apparent.
Playing defense and running out the clock on the Theocratic regime.
It may be wishful thinking but that’s the plan. We’re hoping for home grown regime change, and giving it a boost where we can.
Nuclear weapons are defensive weapons.
Of what use is the Holy Land if it’s radioactive?
Given that if it were up to me I’d still deny them to Iran at whatever cost.