fbpx
Politics Foreign Affairs Culture Fellows Program

Brooks’ Lousy Ideas on Iran

Making the elimination of Iran's nuclear program the "centerpiece of American policy" is to doom that policy to failure.

Surprising no one, David Brooks is opposed to any realistic nuclear deal with Iran:

If the Iranian leaders believe what they say [bold mine-DL], then United States policy should be exactly the opposite of the one now being pursued. Instead of embracing and enriching Iran, sanctions should be toughened to further isolate and weaken it. Instead of accepting a nuclear capacity, eliminating that capacity should be restored as the centerpiece of American policy. Instead of a condominium with Iran that offends traditional allies like Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Israel, the U.S. should build a regional strategy around strengthening relations with those historic pillars.

Brooks is very wrong about this for a few reasons. He takes for granted that it is only the regime’s confrontational and hostile rhetoric that should be taken seriously, and that these are the only beliefs of theirs that matter, so he already discounts anything that Iranian leaders say that doesn’t mesh with his view of them as “apocalyptically motivated, paranoid and dogmatically anti-American.” So when Iranian leaders say for the umpteenth time that they aren’t pursuing nuclear weapons, when they say that their nuclear program is intended for peaceful purposes only, or when they say that the use of nuclear weapons is forbidden, Brooks assumes that they don’t believe what they say and thinks that we should ignore it. He takes it as a given that what they say in these instances is irrelevant, because he is confident that he knows what they really believe. This must be what “epistemological modesty” in action looks like.

The policy recommendations are no better. Brooks wants to “toughen” sanctions on Iran. That’s a lousy idea. Yes, the U.S. could impose additional sanctions in an attempt to “isolate” Iran, but good luck getting cooperation from many of the other states that do business with Iran. Some of these states may have been willing to reduce their dealings with Iran for a limited time, but they aren’t going to be interested in taking a harder line with Iran now that there seems to be an opening for a diplomatic resolution to the nuclear issue. Further “toughening” sanctions will wreck international support for pressuring Iran, and Iran will become less isolated rather than more. Insisting on the eliminating of Iran’s “nuclear capacity” will likewise receive little or no international support, since very few governments in the world accept the idea that Iran should not be permitted to have a nuclear program. Iran will certainly never agree to such terms. So making the elimination of Iran’s nuclear program the “centerpiece of American policy” is to doom that policy to failure or it means putting the U.S. on a path to war with Iran. Brooks’ maximalism is extremely foolish, and ought to be rejected.

If Brooks doesn’t want to offend “traditional allies,” one wonders why he would be so adamantly against agreeing to a deal that three of our oldest and most important allies in Europe are helping to negotiate. Since France, Britain, and Germany are actually allies of the U.S., and the “traditional allies” Brooks cites are just frequently troublesome clients, shouldn’t we be more concerned to cooperate with the former even if it happens to annoy some of the latter? While there may be some states in the region that would welcome the breakdown of talks and renewed U.S.-Iranian hostility, there are many more important allies and major powers around the world that would strongly prefer that the nuclear issue be resolved through these negotiations. Why should the U.S. ignore all of that to cater to the unreasonable preferences of a handful of regional clients?

Advertisement

Comments

The American Conservative Memberships
Become a Member today for a growing stake in the conservative movement.
Join here!
Join here