Although Madeleine Albright isn’t my favorite person to give advice on Iraq policy, she does a fair job of it in her opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times:
Although this is not an administration known for taking advice, I offer three suggestions. The first is to understand that although we all want to “end tyranny in this world,” that is a fantasy unless we begin to solve hard problems. Iraq is increasingly a gang war that can be solved in one of two ways: by one side imposing its will or by all the legitimate players having a piece of the power. The U.S. is no longer able to control events in Iraq, but it can be useful as a referee.
Second, the Bush administration should disavow any plan for regime change in Iran — not because the regime should not be changed but because U.S. endorsement of that goal only makes it less likely. In today’s warped political environment, nothing strengthens a radical government more than Washington’s overt antagonism. It also is common sense to presume that Iran will be less willing to cooperate in Iraq and to compromise on nuclear issues if it is being threatened with destruction. As for Iran’s choleric and anti-Semitic new president, he will be swallowed up by internal rivals if he is not unwittingly propped up by external foes.
Third, the administration must stop playing solitaire while Middle East and Persian Gulf leaders play poker. Bush’s “march of freedom” is not the big story in the Muslim world, where Shiite Muslims suddenly have more power than they have had in 1,000 years; it is not the big story in Lebanon, where Iran is filling the vacuum left by Syria; it is not the story among Palestinians, who voted — in Western eyes — freely, and wrongly; it is not even the big story in Iraq, where the top three factions in the recent elections were all supported by decidedly undemocratic militias.
In the long term, the future of the Middle East may well be determined by those in the region dedicated to the hard work of building democracy. I certainly hope so. But hope is not a policy. In the short term, we must recognize that the region will be shaped primarily by fairly ruthless power politics in which the clash between good and evil will be swamped by differences between Sunni and Shiite, Arab and Persian, Arab and Kurd, Kurd and Turk, Hashemite and Saudi, secular and religious and, of course, Arab and Jew. This is the world, the president pledges in his National Security Strategy, that “America must continue to lead.” Actually, it is the world he must begin to address — before it is too late.
The phrase “before it is too late” is beginning to take on added resonance in a number of areas. Whether it is our civil rights, our fiscal situation, global warming, or our foreign policy in the Middle East, we are running out of time to prevent the worst outcomes.
The Bush administration isn’t taking a realistic view on Iraq, and adding Iran into the mix is a recipe for disaster. Given our history with Iran, there is nothing we could do that would be more counterproductive than to bully and threaten their unpopular government. As Albright says, “nothing strengthens a radical government more than Washington’s overt antagonism”, and nowhere is that more true than Teheran.