Iran: Negotiate for the Sake of Negotiations or Continue to Isolate?

Coming from Jim Hoagland, longtime Washington Post columnist and two time Pulitzer Prize winner, this article is going to drive a stake through the heart of Democrat efforts to negotiate at any price with nations like Iran.

I love it!

In Iran, Feeling the Heat
By Jim Hoagland
Washington Post
April 15, 2007

Dying from cancer a quarter-century ago, the deposed shah of Iran pressed on me a fundamental point about his nation that has become even more vivid over the past two weeks. What the shah said, and almost said, then sheds light on the current confrontation between Iran and the world's great powers.
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The historical force of past intervention in Iran's affairs is obviously no justification for kidnapping British sailors and marines; for pursuing nuclear weapons; or for supporting terrorism in Iraq, Israel and elsewhere. But it is important for Americans to recognize how deep is the imprint of the past and how demagogues exploit it when they are in trouble. It will take broad and sustained campaigns of political and economic pressures to force change in the behavior of any Iranian regime.

Consider the bombast of Ahmadinejad and his aides in grabbing hostages again, in threatening to pull out of the Non-Proliferation Treaty and in saying they will cut off negotiations if the United Nations continues to condemn Iran's nuclear program. The meaningful detail in Iranian threats not to talk to the West is that the Iranians are still talking to the West, however theatrically and unconvincingly. They stall, but they remain engaged, trying to fend off impending isolation.

This demonstrates that the financial and diplomatic pressures orchestrated by the Treasury and State departments are taking their toll on Ahmadinejad's regime. They should be continued and intensified where possible. Among those voting against Tehran on the latest Security Council censure were South Africa, which often breaks with the West on political issues to bolster its nonaligned credentials, and Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation.

Those votes were body blows to Tehran's pretense that the nuclear dispute reflects a continuing victimization of Third World peoples and resources by the rapacious British and other Westerners. So is the visible irritation of Russia's Vladimir Putin with Iran's refusal to consider his offers to guarantee Iran access to peaceful nuclear energy.

The diplomatic effort to assemble a united international front against Iran is paying off. One sign: President Bush displays no sense of urgency about having to decide on military action, recent visitors to the White House report. History, ancient and recent, shows that his best option is to continue on the high road of multilateral, peaceful pressures.

And all of that hard difficult diplomatic work achieved through years of effort can be undermined in one day by the wrong words or a visit by Neville Nancy and her acolytes of the new "Democrat alternative foreign policy."

Remember the dream of Victor Davis Hanson? How much more effective would our efforts be, and how much more secure and free the world would be if Democrats stood shoulder to shoulder with us instead of always seeking a political advantage?

Will Democrat egos get in the way of progress again or have they learned their lesson?