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Информация о материале
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Автор: Dick Morris Eileen Mc Gann
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Категория: english
Jewish World Review Nov.
30, 2006 / 9 Kislev, 5767
Can Iran help us bail out of Iraq? Maybe — but we'd better take a hard
look at the price.
The idea has reportedly been floated via a draft report to the Iraq
Study Group (headed by former Secretary of State James Baker), which calls
for a "dialogue" with Iran as well as Syria. Along the same lines, British
Prime Minister Tony Blair recently said Iran could be a "partner" with
the West if it did not develop a bomb.
Presumably, we'd ask Iran to help stabilize the situation in Iraq,
curb the Shiite militias and encourage the Iraqi government to make sufficient
concessions to the Sunnis to end or at least reduce the violence.
Would it work? It could. Iran certainly has sought to arm and enflame
the Shiites in Iraq. Maybe the mullahs can rein in their proxies, and let
us withdraw in dignity -- not holding onto the skids of the helicopter
as it lifts off our embassy this time.
But why would they play ball with Washington at the same time that
Bush is threatening sanctions explicitly and a military strike implicitly
if Iran proceeds to develop nuclear weapons? No chance.
So this proposal amounts to the de facto abandonment of any military
or economic actions that could deter Iran from going nuclear.
Of course, Baker may seek and Iran may offer public assurances that
it won't develop nuclear weapons — the same worthless assurances it now
passes out to the entire world. What will have changed is that America
and Britain will be so engaged with Iran that they can't and won't bomb
or even impose tough sanctions.
In short, we can only get Iran's help on Iraq if we let Tehran get
the bomb.
Yet, with nukes, Iran gains the leverage to force Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi
Arabia and all the region's oil producers to move in its orbit. The Middle
East will become an Iranian sphere of influence.
Such an under-the-table deal would amount to a total sellout of Israel
and Saudi Arabia and America's other Arab allies.
The Jewish state would be left with no alternative but to take whatever
military action it could to stop Iran from completing its nuclear program.
American capitulation will have left it with no alternative.
Would Jim Baker cut such a deal? In a heartbeat. Never a friend of
Israel, he wouldn't flinch at a realpolitik solution giving Iran power
throughout the region.
But why would Bush go along? It would be "peace in our time" — Munich,
1938 — all over again.
© 2006, Dick Morris
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