Khatami was a better President for us to negotiate with, agreed. Ahmadinejad is very bellicose but at the same time he was also dealing with a US President that referred to him as part of the "Axis of Evil". Bush views them as infidels because of their different way of life (and it sounds like you may as well) so by the same logic, why would they have anything but derision for us barbarians?
There is a big middle ground between labeling an entire country as Evil and being pansy-ass apologists. Appeasement is not a winning policy and I don't subscribe to it. But constructive engagement can and has worked. Diplomacy is a tricky dance between short term needs and long term goals. Ahmadinejad is up for reelection this year. I expect him to win since every other President of Iran has served two terms but from the sounds of it there will be a contested election. He would be term limited after that. So he'll probably be making some noise since in election years politicians are politicians. Whether that will be concilatory toward America or reactionary I really don't know. I'm guessing that 2010 will be a more telling year though as he'll likely be starting his final term and not worrying about reelection. Judah On Tue, Feb 10, 2009 at 5:43 PM, Scott Stroz <[email protected]> wrote: > > Their president hates the US (or rather, the 'West'). Sorry, call me > pessimist, but I don't think much can come of any discussions when one side > of the table views the other as 'infidels' simply because they have a > different way of life. > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:288025 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
