No step the United States could take anywhere in the world would bring strategic benefits as great as detente with Iran.
From Stephen Kinzer
Pakistan is not about to crack down on terror groups or cut its military budget in order to build roads, schools and hospitals.
Most Pakistani politics is conducted within a narrow spectrum. Politicians spend much time debating the best ways to fight India, or take Kashmir, or dominate Afghanistan, or punish the United States for its real and imagined sins.
Mayors of New York are almost automatically national figures.
During the 1980s, international interest in the Nicaraguan war was intense. No conflict since the Spanish civil war had provoked such passion around the world. It was a classic good-versus-evil war.
It is never wise to discourage youthful idealism.
During the 19th century, Iranians lost vast territories in disastrous wars, and corrupt monarchs sold everything of value in the country to foreigners.
In 1907, Britain and Russia signed a treaty dividing Iran between them; no Iranian was at the negotiations or even knew they were taking place.
Iran's most formidable modern leader, Reza Shah Pahlavi, was obsessed with the idea of building a steel mill, but in 1941, soon after he assembled all the components, Allied armies invaded Iran, and the project had to be abandoned.
Conflict with the United States is one of the overwhelming facts of Latin American history.
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