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Obama's Persian Tutorial

[Wall Street Journal] Fouad Ajami - An Iranian theocratic regime had launched a bid for dominion in its region; Mr. Obama offered it an olive branch and waited for it to "unclench" its fist. But in truth Iran had never wanted an opening to the U.S. For three decades, the custodians of the theocracy have had precisely the level of enmity toward the U.S. they have wanted - just enough to be an ideological glue for the regime but not enough to be a threat to their power. The false hope that the revolution would mellow and make its peace with the world bailed them out. In 1989, George H.W. Bush extended an offer to Iran: "Good will begets good will," he said. A decade later, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright came forth with a full apology for America's role in the 1953 coup that ousted nationalist Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh. Iran's rulers scoffed. They were in no need of opening it to outsiders. The writer is a professor at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University and a fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.
2009-06-22 06:00:00
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