Capitulation, Gullibility, Incompetence

Last week I read an article entitled “How the Reagan Administration Taught Iran the Wrong Lessons.” I feel like I learned a lot about the U.S.’s dealings with Iran in the 80s and I was greatly saddened by what went on, especially so because this happened under Reagan. Our dealings with what the administration deemed to be “moderates” during the hostage situations and the constant reneging of promises are proof enough to me that Iran does not deserve anyone’s trust.

Here are the last three paragraphs that struck me the hardest after reading all that had preceded:

Leaving aside all the arguments about messianism, about the rise to power of a new, more conservative generation, and about the first government to have employed the tactic of suicide bombing, one is still left with the disheartening realization that even the most perfectly rational Iran would have little reason not to attack, cow, and expel the fumbling American giant who surrounds her; for what other inference can be drawn from witnessing decades of U.S. capitulation, gullibility, and incompetence?

So thoroughly has the United States eroded its credibility that today one must wonder whether it would be rational for Iran, in contemplating another large-scale attack, to count on American retaliation. The question for America’s leaders is not whether “a nuclear Iran could probably be deterred,” but, rather, whether “could probably” is good enough. “I want you to know,” Ahmadinejad declared in January 2007, “that the Iranian nation has humiliated you many times, and it will humiliate you in [the] future.”

Paraphrasing Khomeini’s slogan, Iran’s president has predicted: “By God’s grace our powerful nation will continue its path and the enemy cannot do a damn thing on the nuclear issue.” If history is any guide, it will require nothing less than a reversal of American policy to prove him wrong.

Capitulation, gullibility and incompetence. All appropriate words to describe the U.S. and its actions. If it were not for our size and power, we would not be standing as a nation. But I guess we would not have been in such a position to demonstrate our gullibility and incompetence if it were not for our size and strength. I guess such is the cost of being a superpower.