Daljit Dhaliwal, host of Foreign Exchange on PBS, had Iranian-American scholar Trita Parsi on her 6 June 2008 show. He's just written Treacherous Alliance - The Secret Dealings of Iran, Israel and the United States.
About the book from Parsi's WWW site:
The book deals with Israeli-Iranian relations in the last 50 years and their impact on US policies and America’s standing in the Middle East. It’s the first book in more than 20 years that deals with the highly sensitive issue of Iran and Israel’s dealings. It is based on more than 130 interviews with high-level Israeli, Iranian and American officials. Contrary to conventional wisdom, Iran and Israel are not entangled in an ideological clash, but rather a resolvable strategic conflict. The book explains both how this rivalry erupted and how it can be resolved. And of course, it reveals many of Iran and Israel’s behind-the-scene dealings that have never been revealed before.
It was not his book that struck me about the interview, but Parsi's contention that in 2003, right after the "success" of the Iraq invasion, Iran approached the USA through back channels (the Swiss) about wanting to negotiate about nuclear weapons and other issues.
The Bush Administration never responded, believing the inquiry was not legitimate or that they could effect "regime change" in Iran as they had just done in Iraq. After all, at the time, we were strong and Iran, scared.
Now, the tables are turned. Larry Wilkerson, then chief of staff for Secretary of State Colin Powell, attested to the legitimacy of the request and believes that an opportunity was lost. Duhhh, yeah Larry, looks that way to me!
Here is Frank Sesno's CNN piece on the story.
Remember, it's not a good idea to negotiate with your enemies. After all, they're bad people.
Let's hope that our elected officials and press start to ask some tough questions, lest we find ourselves at war with Iran, a distinct possibility.
"They may have asked the right questions. Trouble is, they asked all the wrong people." -- John Walcott, McClatchy News, referring to the press during the run-up to the Iraq War
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