The Great Game

It is good to examine views from outside the metropole. Especially during times where the metropole is in decline. This article is a view of the Iranian hostage crisis v2.0 from Brazil.

The seizure of British sailors – and their surprising release – seemed to be Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s perfect publicity stunt. He caught the world’s attention, made them gasp and then suddenly offered a goodwill gesture, just before Christian Easter. The media has displayed his smiling photo with the happy British marines all over the world. The value of this image as a means to gain public appraisal is obvious. The whole episode is an undeniable master’s coup.

The clear lesson that the Bush Administration could learn from this affair is that to deal with this enemy, Washington should use more brain than muscle.

President Bush's policies for dealing with Teheran have systematically failed. The U.S.’s closest and oldest allies have hesitated to pursue the same strategy of isolating the Islamic Republic. Even the sanctions approved by the United Nations Security Council did not enjoy many followers in practice...

It is time for the United States to review Bush's policy of threatening regime change in countries that don’t get along with the State Department. It has never worked. In fact, Iran's government is stronger today than it was five years ago. The Islamic Republic no longer has to deal with hostility from neighboring Iraq, a country it faced on battlefields back when Saddam Hussein was considered a reliable ally by the U.S. government. Designation as friend or foe has always been a matter of convenience for the U.S. government, never a parameter for the improvement of global freedom and democracy. Just look at the absolutist monarchy in Saudi Arabia.

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