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Thursday, March 4, 2010

Gentle Diplomacy with Iran will not Work

Mr. Jacoby may come to regret what he wishes for: an armed attack on Iran (Gentle diplomacy with Iran will not work, Boston Globe, February 10, 2010).

Neither Mr. Jacoby nor I know what is going on in behind the scenes diplomacy, so to label it a failure is premature and unhelpful. What is clear is that like the Cold War Soviet Union, there are hawks and doves in Tehran; a fact never mentioned by Mr. Jacoby. That the mixed signals coming out of Tehran about their nuclear program provide an opportunity for skillful diplomacy to reinforce the doves and undermine the hawks in order to reach an acceptable agreement.

It seems to me that opening a third war front by an attack on Iran would be virtually impossible. Yes, an initial attack might be successful but what of the aftermath?

I am one with Winston Churchill on this one: "Jaw-Jaw is better than War-War."

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