Words of Doubtful Wisdom

The wisdom guiding this administration:-

In a press conference on March 24th, President Obama spoke of a “philosophy of persistence,”...[and] some people said, ‘Well, they did not immediately say they were eliminating nuclear weapons and stop funding terrorism,’ ” Obama said. “Well, we didn’t expect that. We expect that we’re going to make steady progress on this front.”

“We always knew it was not going to be easy with Iran,” Vali Nasr said. “There are too many issues, too many parallel authorities, no track record, and no trust. There have been no relations for thirty years, and there is not intimate knowledge of the actors on the other side.”

The next steps will likely be coördinated by Dennis Ross, the State Department’s veteran Middle East negotiator, who has been named Secretary of State Clinton’s special adviser on Iran. One place to start is Afghanistan, where Iran has a great deal of influence in the northern and western regions. At the conference in The Hague last week, the Iranians pledged to help combat the Afghan drug trade, which, as Clinton told reporters afterward, “is a worry that the Iranians have, which we share.”

Thomas Pickering praised Obama’s approach so far, but cautioned that there was no way to predict if it would bear fruit. “I am trying to be as hard-nosed in my assessments as possible,” Pickering said. “But I have always believed that, if there is an unopened door in a room, then you should try it.”

Source