Foreign Affairs
Related: About this forumWhy Iran must remain a US enemy
The most important factor in shaping US policy towards Iran is domestic politics - not Obama's own geopolitical vision.04 May 2015
About the Author
Gareth Porter
Dr Gareth Porter is an investigative journalist and historian specialising in US national security policy.
Since the start of the US nuclear negotiations with Iran, both Israeli and Saudi officials have indulged in highly publicised handwringing over their belief that such a nuclear deal would represent a fundamental strategic shift in US policy towards the region at the expense of its traditional alliances with Israel and Saudi Arabia.
But the Obama administration is no more likely to lurch into a new relationship with Iran than were previous US administrations. The reason is very simple: The US national security state, which has the power to block any such initiative, has fundamental long-term interests in the continuation of the policy of treating Iran as an enemy.
Some in the Israeli camp have spun elaborate theories about how the Obama administration's negotiations with Iran represent a strategic vision of partnership with the Iranian regime.
Typical of the genre is former Bush administration official Michael Doran's speculation in February that US President Barack Obama based his policy of outreach to Tehran on the assumption that Tehran and Washington are "natural allies".
in full: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2015/04/iran-remain-enemy-150430051039753.html
AuntPatsy
(9,904 posts)Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)AuntPatsy
(9,904 posts)bemildred
(90,061 posts)Back in the 80s it was all so clear. But now it is much more ambiguous.
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)a phrase coined by British journalist and businessman Walter Bagehot to describe the British government in the 1860swill be a challenge, Glennon admits. After all, "There is very little profit to be had in learning about, and being active about, problems that you cant affect, policies that you cant change."
But he is not hopeless. "The ultimate problem is the pervasive political ignorance on the part of the American people. And indifference to the threat that is emerging from these concealed institutions. That is where the energy for reform has to come from: the American people," he said. "The people have to take the bull by the horns."
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2014/10/20/reality-national-security-state-trumps-delusions-us-democracy
For now, I am grateful we're not bombing them, for me that is shift enough, I imagine Iranians feel similarly.