![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
The BBC is reporting that VP Dick Cheney squashed an offer from Iran way back in 2003. According to the article, Iran offered us "a package of concessions" that included an end of Iranian support for Lebanese and Palestinian militant groups, help in stabilizing Iraq post-invasion, and making Iran's nuclear program more open. In return, Iran wanted us to end our hostility toward their country, end sanctions, and disband the Mujahedeen-a-Khalq (a anti-Iranian rebel group which Saddam Hussein had allowed into Iraq).
Reputedly, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell was eager to go with the plan, but was directly overruled by the vice president. Lawrence Wilkerson, one of Powell's aides, put it this way: "But as soon as it [the offer] got to the White House, and as soon as it got to the Vice-President's office, the old mantra of 'We don't talk to evil'... reasserted itself."
So, almost four years ago, we had the opportunity to diplomatically calm the region and perhaps even avoid the quagmire in which we're now caught. Four years ago, Iran was willing to give us what we're now demanding of them, but we wouldn't talk with them. We still won't talk with them. We prefer to rattle our sabers and say "You'd better 'cuz we can bomb you back to the Stone Age, you Islamic Fascist Terrorists, you!"
We're going to be paying for the hubris, arrogance, and fanaticism of this administration for decades.
Reputedly, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell was eager to go with the plan, but was directly overruled by the vice president. Lawrence Wilkerson, one of Powell's aides, put it this way: "But as soon as it [the offer] got to the White House, and as soon as it got to the Vice-President's office, the old mantra of 'We don't talk to evil'... reasserted itself."
So, almost four years ago, we had the opportunity to diplomatically calm the region and perhaps even avoid the quagmire in which we're now caught. Four years ago, Iran was willing to give us what we're now demanding of them, but we wouldn't talk with them. We still won't talk with them. We prefer to rattle our sabers and say "You'd better 'cuz we can bomb you back to the Stone Age, you Islamic Fascist Terrorists, you!"
We're going to be paying for the hubris, arrogance, and fanaticism of this administration for decades.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
Cheney and Iran
B
From:
no subject