U.S. could repeat mistakes
The United States will need to address its relationship with Iran in the near future, panelists at the Conference of World Affairs said on Wednesday.
Panelist Joseph Cirincione, president of the Ploughshares Fund, said Iran is a threat, and if the US addresses the situation in the same way they addressed the issues in Iraq, the administration will only succeed in repeating its mistakes.
“The great strategic failure of this administration is that they have not realized the failure of their strategy,” Cirincione said.
Panelists said it is likely that Iran could build and use nuclear weapons. While the threat of Iran using nuclear weapons has been a topic of concern lately, Cirincione said it is not an immediate issue.
“Iran is at least five to 10 years away from being able to make a nuclear weapon,” Cirincione said.
Panelists said the United States’ actions in Iraq sent a message to Iran and other nations in the world about American political intentions.
“When we went to Iraq, it was called a pre-emptive war,” said Mike Moore, a research fellow at the Independent Institute. “It was not. It was preventative war.”
Moore added that the war in Iraq has sent an “imperialistic statement” to the world. He described the concept of “benign global hegemony,” or the actions of the United States to gain a more powerful stance as a world leader.
Cirincione said the war in Iraq was supposed to create a “democratic Tsunami” that would affect the country’s surrounding nations, including Iran.
“The war in Iraq was never supposed to end in Iraq,” Cirincione said.
Cirincione said that to improve relations in Iran and avoid another war, the United States has to engage the country, talk to them and understand what their interests are.
“Do you mean to tell me that we can’t contain and engage this threat?” he said. “I think we can.”
Daniel Odescalchi, president of the political consulting firm Strategic Advantage International, said he was not as optimistic as Cirincione as far as improving the relationship between the United States and Iran. He said the United States’ refusal to give up its own nuclear weapons while demanding others to do so played a key role in that.
“We are very discredited in the region at this point,” Odescalchi said.
Odescalchi added that Iran has a lot of power in the region, in part because of how much oil the country possesses.
“(Iran) has this ability to raise their middle finger to the world,” he said.
Cirincione said that in order to begin to solve the problem involving Iran, the United States must decide if it is willing to change its strategy from one that seeks to overthrow a regime to one that seeks to change the behavior of a regime.
“(The US) needs to pay immediate attention to what’s going on in Iran,” Cirincione said.
Shea Hoffman, a freshman international affairs major, said she enjoyed hearing about a subject that is all too often neglected.
“It was nice to see that they presented viable options to deal with the situation in Iran,” Hoffman said.
Contact Campus Press Staff Writer Kaely Moore at kaely.moore@colorado.edu.
