{"id":18958,"date":"2014-11-23T13:36:57","date_gmt":"2014-11-23T18:36:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/?p=18958"},"modified":"2014-11-23T13:36:57","modified_gmt":"2014-11-23T18:36:57","slug":"iran-will-do-a-deal-with-the-west-but-only-if-theres-no-loss-of-dignity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/2014\/11\/23\/iran-will-do-a-deal-with-the-west-but-only-if-theres-no-loss-of-dignity\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran will do a deal with the west \u2013 but only if there\u2019s no loss of dignity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reader RichardH sent me a link to the UK\u00a0 Guardian<\/em> article Iran will do a deal with the west \u2013 but only if there\u2019s no loss of dignity<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Speaking about Iran’s present political system, Hooman Majd wrote the following:<\/p>\n

Beyond building the world\u2019s first modern theocracy, which some revolutionaries and perhaps a large percentage of the then silent population never bargained for, the revolution was as much about Persian dignity and greatness as it was about overthrowing a despotic monarchy. It isn\u2019t just pride, as some suggest, that governs popular support for the nuclear programme (or any other technical accomplishment), although Iranians are proud \u2013 perhaps overly so \u2013 of their 5,000-year history and culture, and can be accused of faith in Persian exceptionalism in much the same way the US has in its own.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I think about the application of this idea in our relations with Russia, Iraq, North Korea, Libya, Syria. and some other countries.\u00a0 When we don’t give them the respect that they feel they deserve and we try to take away their sense of dignity, then it ought to be no surprise to us that they won’t agree with us on almost anything.\u00a0 The more we heighten our threats and reprisals against these countries, the more recalcitrant and counter threatening they become.<\/p>\n

Think about this same part of human nature in our domestic relations between President Obama and the Congressional Republicans.\u00a0 In the beginning, Obama tried to win them over by giving them far more respect than they were giving to him.\u00a0 They did not reciprocate.\u00a0 It took many years for Obama to learn that his way of gaining their cooperation was not going to work.\u00a0 In fact, the escalating threats by the Republicans against Obama have finally convinced him that he has\u00a0 to stand up to them.<\/p>\n

In the foreign policy domain, Obama at first took a conciliatory tone to many of our adversaries.\u00a0 However, he reversed policy with them far\u00a0 faster than he did with the Republicans.\u00a0 Ironically, if he had\u00a0 stayed the course in foreign policy, he might have got some reciprocity that he was never going to get from the Republicans.<\/p>\n

In fact, it might have been showing deference to Republican sensitivities for him to take harsher stands in foreign policy.\u00a0 It didn’t win him any fiends among the Republicans, and\u00a0 it has only made things worse among some of our adversaries that seemed to be coming around to a more conciliatory approach themselves.\u00a0 Just think of the sanctions we have imposed on Russia as a reward for the help they gave us in dealing with Syria.<\/p>\n

This consideration of too many sides in all these situations has left me with one conclusion.\u00a0 No single approach to relations is always appropriate in every situation.\u00a0 You have to try to figure out the best approach for each situation.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reader RichardH sent me a link to the UK\u00a0 Guardian article Iran will do a deal with the west \u2013 but only if there\u2019s no loss of dignity. Speaking about Iran’s present political system, Hooman Majd wrote the following: Beyond building the world\u2019s first modern theocracy, which some revolutionaries and perhaps a large percentage of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[166],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-18958","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-stevegsposts","7":"czr-hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18958"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18958\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18959,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18958\/revisions\/18959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}