JL
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The following is reprinted from www.stratfor.com. Stratfor is a privately run intelligence service which provides information to businesses, media and indirectly to our government, some believe. Its founder, George Friedman, is an eminent believer in geopolitics. The recent hacking of his site by parties unknown recently made the headlines. His book, The Next Hundred Years, makes some very interesting predictions as to the direction history will follow.
Throughout his writings, Friedman has often made the point that sooner or later, the United States and Iran will end up working together. Of course, Turkey and Saudi Arabia and the entire Middle East figure into his thinking. I personally suspected that there was more to the Iranian President's recent visit to Latin America than was announced and that "something" was in the offing. That is why this article is important. It is reproduced here giving full credit to Stratfor, on whose web site it appeared.
Jack Lippman
Jack Lippman
Considering a U.S.-Iranian Deal
January 24, 2012
By George Friedman
Last week, I wrote on the strategic challenge Iran faces in its bid to shape
a sphere of influence stretching from western Afghanistan to Beirut on the
eastern Mediterranean coast. I also pointed out the limited options available to
the United States and other Western powers to counter Iran.
One was increased efforts to block Iranian influence in Syria. The other was
to consider a strategy of negotiation with Iran. In the past few days, we have
seen hints of both.
Rebel Gains in Syria
The city of Zabadani in southwestern Syria reportedly has fallen into the
hands of anti-regime forces. Though the city does not have much tactical value
for the rebels, and the regime could well retake it, the event could have real
significance. Up to this point, apart from media attention, the resistance to
the regime of President Bashar al Assad has not proven particularly effective.
It was certainly not able to take and hold territory, which is critical for any
insurgency to have significance.
Now that the rebels have taken Zabadani amid much fanfare -- even though it
is not clear to what extent the city was ceded to their control, much less
whether they will be able to hold it against Syrian military action -- a small
bit of Syria now appears to be under rebel control. The longer they can hold it,
the weaker al Assad will look and the more likely it becomes that regime
opponents can create a provisional government on Syrian soil to rally
around.
Zabadani also gives outside powers something to help defend, should they
choose to do so. Intervening in a civil war against weak and diffused rebels is
one thing. Attacking Syrian tanks moving to retake Zabadani is quite another.
There are no indications that this is under consideration, but for the first
time, there is the potential for a militarily viable target set for outside
players acting on behalf of the rebels. The existence of that possibility might
change the dynamic in Syria. When we take into account the atmospherics of the
Arab League demands for a provisional government, some meaningful pressure might
actually emerge.
From the Iranian point of view, this raises the risk that the sphere of
influence Tehran is pursuing will be blocked by the fall of the al Assad regime.
This would not pose a fundamental challenge to Iran, so long as its influence in
Iraq remains intact, but it would represent a potential high-water mark in
Iranian ambitions. It could open the door to recalculations in Tehran as to the
limits of Iranian influence and the threat to their national security. I must
not overstate this: Events in Syria have not gone that far, and Iran is hardly
backed into a corner. Still, it is a reminder to Tehran that all might not go
the Iranians' way.
A Possibility of Negotiations
It is in this context that the possibility of negotiations has arisen. The
Iranians have claimed that the letter the U.S. administration sent to Iranian
supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that defined Iran's threats to Strait of
Hormuz as a red line contained a second paragraph offering direct talks with
Iran. After hesitation, the United States denied the offer of talks, but it did
not deny it had sent a message to the Iranian leadership. The Iranians then
claimed such an offer was made verbally to Tehran and not in the letter.
Washington again was not categorical in its denial. On Friday, U.S. Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton said during a meeting with the German foreign minister,
"We do not seek conflict. We strongly believe the people of Iran deserve a
better future. They can have that future, the country can be reintegrated into
the global community ... when their government definitively turns away from
pursuing nuclear weapons."
From our perspective, this is a critical idea. As we have said for several
years, we do not see Iran as close to having a nuclear weapon. They may be close
to being able to test a crude nuclear device under controlled circumstances (and
we don't know this either), but the development of a deliverable nuclear weapon
poses major challenges for Iran.
Moreover, while the Iranians may aspire to a deterrent via a viable nuclear
weapons capability, we do not believe the Iranians see nuclear weapons as
militarily useful. A few such weapons could devastate Israel, but Iran would be
annihilated in retaliation. While the Iranians talk aggressively, historically
they have acted cautiously. For Iran, nuclear weapons are far more valuable as a
notional threat and bargaining chip than as something to be deployed. Indeed,
the ideal situation is not quite having a weapon, and therefore not forcing
anyone to act against them, but seeming close enough to be taken seriously. They
certainly have achieved that.
The important question, therefore, is this: What would the United States
offer if Iran made meaningful concessions on its nuclear program, and what would
Iran want in return? In other words, forgetting the nuclear part of the
equation, what did Hillary Clinton mean when she said that Iran can be
reintegrated into the international community, and what would Iran actually
want?
Recall that in our view, nuclear weapons never have been the issue. Instead, the issue has been the development of an Iranian sphere of influence following the withdrawal of the United States from Iraq, and the pressure Iran could place on oil-producing states on the Arabian Peninsula. Iran has long felt that its natural role as leader in the Persian Gulf has been thwarted, first by the Ottomans, then the British and now by the Americans, and they have wanted to create what they regard as the natural state of things.
The United States and its allies do not want Iran to get nuclear weapons. But
more than that, they do not want to see Iran as the dominant conventional force
in the area able to use its influence to undermine the Saudis. With or without
nuclear weapons, the United States must contain the Iranians to protect their
Saudi allies. But the problem is that Iran is not contained in Syria yet, and
even were it contained in Syria, it is not contained in Iraq. Iran has broken
out of its containment in a decisive fashion, and its ability to exert pressure
in Arabia is substantial.
Assume for the moment that Iran was willing to abandon its nuclear program.
What would the United States give in return? Obviously, Clinton would like to
offer an end to the sanctions. But the sanctions on Iran are simply not that
onerous with the Russians and Chinese not cooperating and the United States
being forced to allow the Japanese and others not to participate fully. But it
goes deeper.
Iran's Historic Opportunity
This is a historic opportunity for Iran. It is the first moment in which no
outside power is in a direct position to block Iran militarily or politically.
Whatever the pain of sanctions, trading that moment for lifting the sanctions
would not be rational. The threat of Iranian influence is the problem, and Iran
would not trade that influence for an end to sanctions. So assuming the nuclear
issue was to go away, what exactly is the United States prepared to offer?
The United States has assured access to oil from the Persian Gulf -- not only
for itself, but also for the global industrial world -- since World War II. It
does not want to face a potential interruption of oil for any reason, like the
one that occurred in 1973. Certainly, as Iran expands its influence, the
possibility of conflict increases, along with the possibility that the United
States would intervene to protect its allies in Arabia from Iranian-sponsored
subversion or even direct attack. The United States does not want to intervene
in the region. It does not want an interruption of oil. It also does not want an
extension of Iranian power. It is not clear that Washington can have all
three.
Iran wants three things, too.
First, it wants the United States to reduce its presence in the Persian Gulf
dramatically. Having seen two U.S. interventions against Iraq and one against
Afghanistan, Iran is aware of U.S. power and the way American political
sentiment can shift. It experienced the shift from Jimmy Carter to Ronald
Reagan, so it knows how fast things can change. Tehran sees the United States in
the Persian Gulf coupled with U.S. and Israeli covert operations and
destabilization campaigns as an unpredictable danger to Iranian national
security.
Second, the Iranians want to be recognized as the leading power in the
region. This does not mean they intend to occupy any nation directly. It does
mean that Iran doesn't want Saudi Arabia, for example, to pose a military threat
against it.
Third, Iran wants a restructuring of oil revenue in the region. How this is
formally achieved -- whether by allowing Iranian investment in Arabian oil
companies (possibly financed by the host country) or some other means -- is
unimportant. What does matter is that the Iranians want a bigger share of the
region's vast financial resources.
The United States doesn't want a conflict with Iran. Iran doesn't want one
with the United States. Neither can be sure how such a conflict would play out.
The Iranians want to sell oil. The Americans want the West to be able to buy
oil. The issue really comes down to whether the United States wants to guarantee
the flow of oil militarily or via a political accommodation with the country
that could disrupt the flow of oil -- namely, Iran. That in turn raises two
questions. First, could the United States trust Iran? And second, could it live
with withdrawing the American protectorate on the Arabian Peninsula, casting old
allies adrift?
When we listen to the rhetoric of American and Iranian politicians, it is
difficult to imagine trust between them. But when we recall the U.S. alliance
with Stalin and Mao or the Islamic republic's collaboration with the Soviet
Union, we find rhetoric is a very poor guide. Nations pursue their national
interest, and while those interests are never eternal, they can be substantial.
From a purely rhetorical point of view it is not always easy to tell which
sides' politicians are more colorful. It will be difficult to sell an alliance
between the Great Satan and a founding member of the Axis of Evil to the
respective public of each country, but harder things have been managed.
Iran's ultimate interest is security against the United States and the
ability to sell oil at a more substantial profit. (This would entail an easing
of sanctions and a redefinition of how oil revenues in the region are
distributed.) The United States' ultimate interest is access to oil and
manageable prices that do not require American military intervention. On that
basis, Iranian and American interests are not that far apart.
The Arabian Factor and a Possible Accommodation
The key point in this scenario is the future of U.S. relations with the
countries of the Arabian Peninsula. Any deal between Iran and the United States
affects them two ways. First, the reduction of U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf
requires them to reach an accommodation with the Iranians, something difficult
and potentially destabilizing for them. Second, the shift in the financial flow
will hurt them and probably will not be the final deal. Over time, the Iranians
will use their strengthened position in the region to continue pushing for
additional concessions from them.
There is always danger in abandoning allies. Other allies might be made
uncomfortable, for example. But these things have happened before. Abandoning
old allies for the national interest is not something the United States
invented. The idea that the United States should find money flowing to the
Saudis inherently more attractive than money flowing to the Iranians is not
obvious.
The main question for the United States is how Iran might be contained. The
flow of money will strengthen Iran, and it might seek to extend its power beyond
what is tolerable to the United States. There are potential answers. First, the
United States can always return to the region. The Iranians do not see the
Americans as weak, but rather as unpredictable. Challenging the United States
after Iran has achieved its historic goal is not likely. Second, no matter how
Iran grows, it is far behind Turkey by every measure. Turkey is not ready to
play an active role balancing Iran now, but in the time it takes Iran to
consolidate its position, Turkey will be a force that will balance and
eventually contain Iran. In the end, a deal will come down to one that profits
both sides and clearly defines the limits of Iranian power -- limits that it is
in Iran's interest to respect given that it is profiting mightily from the
deal.
Geopolitics leads in one direction. Ideology leads in another direction. The
ability to trust one another is yet a third. At the same time, the Iranians
cannot be sure of what the United States is prepared to do. The Americans do not
want to go to war with Iran. Both want oil flowing, and neither cares about
nuclear weapons as much as they pretend. Finally, no one else really matters in
this deal. The Israelis are not as hardline on Iran as they appear, nor will the
United States listen to Israel on a matter fundamental to the global economy. In
the end, absent nuclear weapons, Israel does not have that much of a problem
with Iran.
It would not surprise me to find out that the United States offered direct
talks, nor to discover that Clinton's comments could not be extended to a more
extensive accommodation. Nor do I think that Iran would miss a chance for an
historic transformation of its strategic and financial position in favor of
ideology. They are much too cynical for that. The great losers would be the
Saudis, but even they could come around to a deal that, while less satisfactory
than they have now, is still quite satisfactory.
There are many blocks in the way of such a deal, from ideology to distrust to
domestic politics. But given the knot that is being tied in the region, rumors
that negotiations are being floated come as no surprise. Syria might not go the
way Iran wants, and Iraq is certainly not going the way the United States wants.
Marriages have been built on less.
* * * * * * * * *
Scalia Defends Citizens
United Decision
Supreme
Court Associate Justice Scalia, when questioned the other day about the impact
of the Citizens United decision, a topic discussed at length on this blog's most recent posting, commented that those that don’t want to see the
advertising made possible by the decision can either switch channels on their
TV set or shut it off. No one is forcing
them to watch these messages.
He then
pointed out that the Court’s role is only to determine the legality or
Constitutionality of a law, and not to change it. That, he went on to point out, is the job of
the appropriate legislative body, in this case the United States Congress. Hence, it appears that the Supreme Court has joined Congress in
contributing to the stagnation so prevalent in our government. Their excuse, at least according to Scalia, is the separation of powers inherent in our governmental
structure.
JL
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Old Man’s Dream…or Memory?
Sid Bolotin
Being
three-years-old
In his crib
Sucking his thumb
In great distress
Plopped down by
The angry
babysitter
Images arising
He is like Tarzan
Leading an army
Of trusted
animals
Punishing all bad
people
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Is Your Political Leaning Biologically Based?
The following article, seen on Huffinton Post, is by Stephanie Pappas, Live Science Senior Writer, where it first appeared. (Published: 01/22/2012 07:36 PM EST on LiveScience) It was recommended to us by one of our regular followers. It is not news to this blog that conservatives are generally more negative than liberals, who I find to be more positive. Well, now "science" has proven it. Sort of. I guess.
JL
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If you walk away from holiday dinners fuming that conservative Uncle Morton just can't see your point of view, or that liberal Aunt Betty just doesn't get it, a new finding may make it easier to cool your jets. According to the study, conservatives and liberals pay attention to their environments differently, meaning the two sides of the political spectrum quite literally don't see eye-to-eye.
Conservatives pay more attention to negative stimuli compared with liberals, the study found. "They're essentially monitoring things that make them feel uncomfortable, which does feel fairly consistent with conservative policies, actually," study researcher Mike Dodd, a psychologist at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, told LiveScience. "They tend to confront things head-on that they view as threats, things like immigration and so on."
Dodd was quick to note that the kind of stimuli a person pays more attention to does not make them better or worse than someone of another political persuasion. But the findings could suggest a biological basis for political views.
"Based on your biology, you might be experiencing and processing something in a fundamentally different way from someone else," Dodd said.
The idea that a person's innate biology might play into how they vote is
relatively new. But researchers at the University of Nebraska and elsewhere
have been uncovering a series of clues suggesting that political preference is
somewhat influenced by biology. Conservatives are more squeamish than liberals, these scientists have found, while liberals
pay more attention to the eye movements
of others compared with conservatives.
These differences are at the level of reflexes and rely on extremely basic brain processes such as attention. Although the researchers can't prove that biology influences political beliefs and not the other way around, Dodd said there's good reason to believe that biology comes first and beliefs second.
"It's quite unlikely that just because you've adopted some sort of political temperament, that's going to change basic cognition," Dodd said. "I'm not saying it's impossible. I'm just saying it makes more sense the other way around."
In the new study, Dodd and his colleagues had 48 adults who were strongly conservative or strongly liberal look at a series of 33 pictures. Some of the pictures were pleasant, such as that of a fluffy bunny. Others, including a picture of a maggot-infested wound and another of a man with a spider on his face, were downright disgusting.
While the participants looked at the photos, researchers monitored their skin conductance, a measure of minute changes in sweating that reveals how excited and emotional someone feels, in this case, about a given image. They found that, consistent with other studies, conservatives responded more strongly to the negative images.
In a second experiment, the researchers repeated the procedure with images of polarizing politicians, including Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Again, they found a political difference: Conservatives responded more strongly to politicians they disagreed with, such as Clinton, than they did to politicians they liked. Liberals, on the other hand, had a stronger physiological reaction to politicians they agreed with than they did to politicians they disliked.
But knowing that someone has a strong reaction to something tells you little about what they do about that reaction. It's possible that conservatives might look away from things that disgust them, Dodd said. Or they might pay more attention to disgusting things because they're cuing into potential threats. To find out, the researchers created collages of positive and negative images and set up an eye-tracking device to follow where participants' gazes fell. They then had 76 college students look at the collages.
"Conservatives would orient to those negative things pretty much twice as fast, and they would spend quite a lot longer looking at them relative to the liberals, who preferred more positive things," Dodd said. He and his colleagues reported the findings today (Jan. 22) in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B.
The findings provide extra evidence that basic biology may play a role in political choices, Dodd said. Of course, not every country has a liberal-conservative split like the United States. Most likely, Dodd said, you'd see a similar difference between more right-wing and more left-wing people, but the size of that difference might be smaller.
"I'm Canadian, and I would say that our right is actually fairly liberal in many regards," Dodd said. "So I think you would still expect to find some differences there, but I think it's a question of what the magnitude of those differences are."
Biology isn't destiny, Dodd added, and basic brain processes certainly interact with experiences and culture to influence politics. Nonetheless, he hopes the study will help cool political tempers.
"What we're showing here is that people just don't see things the same, even if it's the same thing," Dodd said. "I do think there's a nice potential here to move beyond stereotypes."
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Jack
Lippman
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