Quote:
Originally Posted by Maggy J
The problem with Iran is it depends which faction you are talking to..In the end they all end up contradicting each other and you can never be really sure if the face you are talking to has any real power to do anything.This makes the country seem like it is suffering from a multiple personality disorder.
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Indeed and that's always been true. In a sense it is suffering from very contradictory forces. I think there's a lot more to work with though than there was say in the 1980s and even then Reagan's cronies managed to have an acceptable enough relationship to bribe these fundamentalists. The problem is the media has very short memories and spends a great deal of time painting people as (a) stupid (b) dictators rather than thinking about the real issues a country may have.
My point is that the US has never had a grown up relationship with Iran. In the early days before the coup it was just bothered about the Brits and oil. When the Shah's puppets were in charge it ignored things which would today be regarded as essential such as human rights and not selling loads of weapons without any consideration. Then after the Shah got deposed I think there was shock for a long time afterwards and some guilt about how infantile the relationship had been. We've virtually never spoken to Iran since even though Iran's changed. I'd rather the school of school yard diplomacy were left behind even though it'll be a long and hard road, we've got decades of work to make up for it that could start in January.