Remember Iran?

The editors at the magazine Commonweal remind us that, as the administration talks about possible conflict with Iran:

[i]t is now easy to forget that America’s relations with Iran were improving after September 11. Iran condemned the terrorist attacks and lent its support to the U.S. effort to overthrow the Taliban in Afghanistan. In 2003, Iran’s National Security Council approved a proposal for comprehensive talks with the United States, but the White House never followed up. By then President Bush had decided to include Iran in his “Axis of Evil,” partly in order to keep his critics from claiming he had unfairly singled out Iraq. Now there is the temptation to find some other country to blame for our failure in Iraq. The president seems to have chosen Iran and firmly refuses to meet with its leaders. “This is a world in which people say, ‘Meet! Sit down and meet!’” the president has said. “And my answer is, if it yields results, that’s what I’m interested in.” But he has it backward: he will have to show he’s interested before he can reasonably expect results. The president should not try to convince himself, and us, that he already knows what talks with Iran could accomplish.

You can read the entire editorial here.