rssCNN’s Ware: ‘Iran Has a Lock on Influence and Persuasion… Within the Iraqi Political Process’
Monday, November 17, 2008 at 5:25 pm
- 2 Comments
My extremely tall friend Matt Duss of the Center for American Progress has a fascinating video interview with CNN’s Michael Ware, who’s done yeoman work reporting from Baghdad. Ware’s take on the Status of Forces Agreement: Iran had much more influence over the process than the U.S. seems to realize.
Taking Ware at face value, let’s explore the implications of this. The SOFA ended up as a lever for the Iraqi government to push the U.S. out of the country on a firm timetable. Iran wanted that, clearly. You wouldn’t want tens of thousands of troops from a hostile power on two of your borders either. But clearly vast swaths of U.S. public opinion have a similar perspective about what’s in the U.S. interest. Nearly 67 million people voted for the presidential candidate who proposed withdrawing from Iraq along a timeline; and of the 10 percent who said Iraq was their number-one concern, six in ten of them voted for that same candidate.
Now, you can look at this in a variety of ways. One way of looking at it is that 53 percent of the American electorate are Iranian stooges, naive and nefarious useful idiots for a ruthless band of religious fanatics. Another way is that the end of the occupation of Iraq is an example where U.S., Iraqi and Iranian interests all converge, and recognizing that might be a useful place to begin recasting the U.S.-Iranian relationship.
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2 Comments
Comment posted November 17, 2008 @ 6:56 pm
It is refreshing to hear a frank admission that the leaders we installed in Iraq are and always have been connected to Iran. The Bush Administration’s long focus on Iran has been very simplistic and one sided. They ignore the ways Iran has helped stabilize the country and focus on their efforts to keep us off balance and bleeding. They way forward, as the Iraq Study Group said nearly 2 years again, moves through and with Iran. They can be powerful allies in creating stable governments in both Iran and Afghanistan. This is not to say that working with them will be straight forward or easy, nonetheless our troops need the support that this regional power can provide. It is high time we started getting it for them.
Comment posted November 18, 2008 @ 2:56 am
It is refreshing to hear a frank admission that the leaders we installed in Iraq are and always have been connected to Iran. The Bush Administration’s long focus on Iran has been very simplistic and one sided. They ignore the ways Iran has helped stabilize the country and focus on their efforts to keep us off balance and bleeding. They way forward, as the Iraq Study Group said nearly 2 years again, moves through and with Iran. They can be powerful allies in creating stable governments in both Iran and Afghanistan. This is not to say that working with them will be straight forward or easy, nonetheless our troops need the support that this regional power can provide. It is high time we started getting it for them.
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