(Rob van Riel) wrote:

"Bill Silvey"
Indeed. I'd much rather see Iran as a U.S. ally than not. The current
Iranian "Generation-X" pretty much despises the Mullahs that run the
country, and as often as they can (and in private) embrace western values.

I might be delusional about all this, but my feeling is that if we all
leave Iran in peace, in something like 20 years it could turn into a
thoughroughly modern state. Still predominantly islamic, but the way
many Western nations are predominantly christian, rather than the
fundamantalist islam of the ayatollahs. Much as I dislike what
happened there in the past, Iran might be our best hope of introducing
a stable factor in the region, compatible with the Western way of
doing things.

And especially next to a (hopefully) stable Iraq. Saudi Arabia
is about to hold elections, and I think it's safe to say their
government is going to wobble around some as they move away from a
tightly controlled monarchy. A developing Iran, a rebuilding Iraq
could make Syria a little more likely to negotiate and be peaceable
when they see their neighbors doing well.

At this point I have precious little faith in the State Dept
being able to do anything in this regard, though.



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