Just listen to what Defense Secretary Robert Gates said to the government delegations assembled for a regional security conference in Bahrain this past weekend: "Everywhere you turn, it is the policy of Iran to foment instability and chaos, no matter the strategic value or the cost in the blood of innocents - Christians, Jews, and Muslims alike. There can be little doubt that their destabilizing foreign policies are a threat to the interests of the United States, to the interests of every country in the Middle East, and to the interests of all countries within the range of the ballistic missiles Iran is developing."
(Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, by the way, backed out of the attending the conference at last minute, "due to his hectic and intense plans," according to the official IRNA news agency.)
By William M Arkin
The National Intelligence Estimate on Iran released last week may have seemed like a dramatic reversal, but it certainly hasn't toned down Bush administration rhetoric -- or improved our understanding of the dynamics in that region.
Just listen to what Defense Secretary Robert Gates said to the government delegations assembled for a regional security conference in Bahrain this past weekend: "Everywhere you turn, it is the policy of Iran to foment instability and chaos, no matter the strategic value or the cost in the blood of innocents - Christians, Jews, and Muslims alike. There can be little doubt that their destabilizing foreign policies are a threat to the interests of the United States, to the interests of every country in the Middle East, and to the interests of all countries within the range of the ballistic missiles Iran is developing."
(Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, by the way, backed out of the attending the conference at last minute, "due to his hectic and intense plans," according to the official IRNA news agency.)
Gates's speech ended up being the highlight of the weekend. Well, not the speech itself, which, in addition to rehashing administration arguments about the Iranian threat, urged the Persian Gulf countries to help Iraq move toward democracy.
Rather, the notable moment came during the subsequent question-and-answer session, when Bahraini Labor Minister Majeed al-Alawi asked him whether he thought "the Zionist [Israeli] nuclear weapon is a threat to the region" the way a potential Iranian nuclear weapon would be.
"No, I do not," Gates said. "I think Israel is not training terrorists to subvert its neighbors. It has not shipped weapons into a place like Iraq to kill thousands of innocent civilians covertly. So I think that there are significant differences in terms of both the history and the behavior of the Iranian and Israeli governments."
His answer was greeted by laughter and derision.
Adm. William Fallon, commander of the U.S. Central Command, later told the Gulf Daily News that he was perplexed by the "clearly hostile questions." Fallon said: "You scratch your head at some of the thinking. I just reject out of hand the premise of some of the comments we heard -- we are a force for peace in the world and we engage here for the purpose of trying to make this a better world, and I think the record pretty much speaks for itself."
I don't know what record Fallon is talking about, but clearly he is out of touch with the regional thinking. The Gulf states see Washington's attitude toward Israel's nuclear arsenal as a double standard. They see Iran as a neighbor, not as an enemy. And they're more interested in preserving their non-elected governments than in helping Iraq become a democracy.
Want to really understand the long-term problem America faces in that part of the world? We just don't get it.
