Dealing With Iran

One of the major issues that we likely will have to face in 2012 is Iran’s nuclear program. We know what everyone is telling us about that – and how UN sanctions are not having much effect in stopping or curtailing what the Iranians plan to do. With Iran listed as one of the rogue nations about which we are continuously concerned, facing this challenge has to be one of the primary targets of US foreign policy.

A solution exists, if we think outside the box a little. This is how we should deal with Iran’s nuclear ambitions – embrace them. Invest in them. It would not be the first time US economic interests dictated foreign policy, nor the first time we engaged beneficially with a power with whose politics we disagree. And besides, if we invested American capitol and perhaps even American labor in Iran in this way, we could monitor their programs better if we were on the Board.

Iran says they are seeking only peaceful uses for nuclear power. Sell them our own expertise. Sell them our own materials. Help them build that peaceful program, then hide bugs and cameras nation-wide to spy on them. It would be better than looking for WMDs that are not there, or, worse, watching a threatened Israel launch pre-emptive strikes against Iranian power plants and thereby perhaps alienating the entire region.

I know you aren’t listening, Mr. President and members of Congress. But you should be.