The message from Iran: Let's talk

After a resounding US diplomatic defeat and the effective retreat of US power in the region, whether by accident or by design (a design by Obama the left wing radical, as some right wing writers in the US claim), the Rouhani Op-ed comes hot on the heels of Putin's Op-ed at a time of changing power dynamics regionally and perhaps globally. Both Russia and Iran wish to appear as the new regional leaders, the wielders of 'soft power', enlightened and progressive, desirous of dialogue that leads to win-win deals, in other words eager diplomatic beavers, ready to sponsor dialogue between all parties in a Middle East long used to zero-sum politics. And the Arabs, they are no where to be seen on the foreign policy map, they are too busy mopping up the blood from their streets, cleaning up the wreckage of the so-called Arab Spring, still embroiled in zero-sum local tribal politics.
If the US failure was in fact a success for Obama's supposed policy of disengagement from draining foreign conflicts, then its good news, not just for the American people whose government will have more money to spend on healthcare and education and more time to focus on its ailing economy, but for our long suffering region as well. The days of the W doctrine: 'if you're not with us you are against us', are over, gone for good, or so one hopes. In place of hegemonic US power and its liberal use of brute force, is fast emerging a new policy of rapprochement, an unexpected but welcome result of this supposed Obama policy. For the world, this appetite for dialogue and talks and a genuine desire to hammer out 'win-win' deals from both Iran and Russia is good news because it means we will be spared either a protracted cold war or a destructive hot war.

For those Americans sorry to see the US retreat from the brink and see it as weakening the United States, I say this: In 1917 and again in 1941, it was not a hegemonic imperialist United States that defeated the bully of the time. In the first instance it was a reluctant isolationist America that went to war and helped defeat the Kaiser, in the second instance it was an America weakened by years of depressed economic activity that rose to fight and defeat Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. Retreating from the brink, giving up power some times takes more courage than hurtling head first into an ill-advised military adventure.


So, the times they are changing, they have to, the US could not sustain its present level of military commitment abroad for much longer. This policy shift, if indeed it is a policy shift, had to happen sooner or later. The only ones who will suffer are US clients in the region, those political parties and countries that have nailed their colors to the mast of the USS Sinkalot, and those who continue to press for a zero-sum outcome which ever side they are on. The new Middle East is a workshop, a workshop for deal making and the settlement of long standing conflicts, or so one hopes.


Rouhani's Op-ed in the Washington Post

Norman Podhoretz: Obama's successful foreign failure

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Adultery and the western media's attitude towards Dubai

Here we go again... another British woman charged with adultery in Dubai and the whole of the British and UAE press jump all over it as if its the scoop of the season. I wonder what readers think and in particular British readers? Do they feel ashamed that a compatriot is behind bars because she could not control her animal urges? Well they should be, because this is far from a crime she committed against her husband, with whom she exchanged marital vows, it is a crime against the laws of the UAE. It shows a total lack of regard and respect for the traditions of this conservative Muslim country and it is a slap in the face of every Emirati. Why does the press seem compelled to give such people extensive coverage? One hopes to enlighten the British public as to the pitfalls of sleeping around and its legal repercussions, but in truth its all about money, headlines and a public hungry to devour such shameful scandal. The press are complicit with the mob in elevating such individuals, who
Read more

Orosdi-Back: A lost Beyrouth department store from an elegant age

Image
My mother told me it was located on ‘ Banks Street ’ in Down Town Beirut , the road that leads up to Riad el Solh Square . On most maps the street is also named after Riad el Solh. The store was located opposite Bank Intra, or so I was told. Presumably the location of the store was indicative of the high end goodies on sale inside. The closest comparison to Orosdi Back is the old Allied’s department store in Dubai , for those who remember Dubai in the 1980s. But Orosdi Back was a store from a different age, an age of elegance as opposed to the vulgar modern excesses of the nouveau-riche, something Beirut ’s Down Town is synonymous with! A wonderful blog dubbed ‘language hat’ published some information about the founders of this chain of department stores. According to the blog the chain of stores came about as a result of a partnership between Adolf Orosdi, a Hungarian army officer and his sons who opened a clothing store in Galata in 1855, and the Back family, who were Austro-H
Read more

Lebanon searching for deliverance from the wolves of war, chaos and collapse

Image
There is little to do in Lebanon, little paid work to be done, and what work there is, is pointless and poorly paid. Here we live in the hope that we shall eventually be delivered from the monsters, the wolves of our Lebanese government, Cabinet and Parliament and all the power-brokers that manipulate our lives. I once asked a political science professor “why do politicians always wear suits and ties?” He answered jokingly: “so you don’t see their snake’s skin”, I guess if they wore hats it would be so we don’t see their devil’s horns, or is that meant only for men of the cloth…?   Regardless of which political side you ask about our country’s future, the answer would likely be the same, that things are looking bleak and the blame is always laid at the door of the “other side”, because your interlocutor will never make the mistake of accepting that his/her side shares any of the blame for catastrophe. Lebanese society remains highly polarized politically and ideologically. Archaic reli
Read more