Thread: My prediction:...
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Old 09-14-2007, 06:08 PM   #30 (permalink)
baloney_detector
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nuttyjoe View Post
I was thinking more of the State Department for BD. He seems to understand, as our State Department does not; that to show weakness before these "thug regimes" does not help the peace process along- it only invites more behavior of the sort that caused the problem in the first place. But it can never stop the behavior!
There was a line from the movie "Air Force One" that fits perfectly here: "If you give a mouse a cookie; he's going to want a glass of milk".
I think for 28 years the US government, including the State Department, has misunderstood (or ignored) the nature of the Iranian regime.

In short, they aren't interested in what we could rationally offer them in any diplomatic sense.

And, offering them carrots (or cookies) in exchange for them changing their behavior, of which they have no intention of changing, only makes them look at the US in disgust...even though they will happily walk away with the carrot while giving nothing in return.

And, until the US government as a whole realizes that it needs to treat the Iranian regime as the totalitarian and evil government that it is, and treats them with the same forcefulness that the US treated Nazi Germany during WWII and the Soviet Union during the Cold War, they simply aren't going to change their behavior.