Juan Cole on Iran

Food for thought on the rush to war.

When Bush called Iran one of the Axis of Evil, back in the day, my wife's Iranian officemate said that Bush handed the hardliners all the ammunition they needed. It is true that Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism and should be ostracized and embargoed by all sensible countries, but it's also true that an outside attack on Iran will galvanize even the pro-western population of Iran and set them against their "liberators."

This one's gonna take time to do right. Unfortunately, the people who want "liberation" for Iran seem to only have one word in their vocabulary - "Faster."