Here is some stuff to think about:

One thing is clear: the statements by Iran’s leaders have shifted from earlier this year, when high-ranking Iranian officials said a foreign attack on Syria would be treated as an attack on Iran itself. There may even be some relief at the prospect of more direct American involvement in the Syrian conflict, which has occasionally been cast as “Iran’s Vietnam,” some analysts say.

“The reality is that Obama’s military action will make the Syrian tragedy his and not Iran’s,” wrote Farideh Farhi, an Iran scholar at the University of Hawaii, in an analysis published online at Lobelog.com. “And in Iran’s postelection environment, in which the country has moved toward national reconciliation — both among the elite and between the government and the population — nothing suits the Islamic Republic better than divesting itself from this issue quietly.”

For all their mutual antipathy, the United States and Iran may ultimately find common ground in Syria.

“The United States and Iran are fighting a zero-sum proxy war in Syria at the moment,” said Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “If and when Assad falls, the two sides will have a mutual adversary in radical Sunni jihadists.”

Eventually, some kind of outcome, if not resolution, is going to happen in Syria. And the analysis we’re reading here predicts that both Iran and the U.S. will be losers, but that maybe they can become friends as a result. Like two past-their-last-chance drunks at the bar, Iran and America can commiserate about their miseries. That could be the best we have the right to hope for.

The prospects for another outcome, like some kind of negotiated settlement of the civil war that precluded total victory by any side, went to the wayside when the chemical attacks happened on August 21st. The Assad regime is now considered too monstrous (at least, in the West) to be allowed to cling to any part of power. We aren’t going to negotiate with Assad or anyone in his regime.

Maybe Iran can see the writing on the wall, but can we? Neither side can like where this is going, and nobody loves you when you’re down and out.

It’s time to drop the logic and momentum of schoolyard taunts. Enough talk of “red lines” and “fecklessness” and “cowardice.” It’s time for more creative thinking.

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