While the rest of us throw around half-assed ideas about what Democrats should say about Iran, Brad Plumer has been working out what a good Iran policy would look like. A couple things he says:
-Ahmadinejad’s belligerent anti-Israel comments might be explained by a desire to make a nuclear Iran acceptable to its Sunni neighbors, who would otherwise fear that Iranian nukes are pointed at them.
-It’s not really clear whether Ahmadinejad has any real power. His predecessor, Khatami, didn’t.
-Why does Iran want nuclear weapons? One reason is the massive American presence in the region — “Understandably, the mullahs feel a bit
cagey about the nearby presence of a belligerent nation that frequently
invades sovereign nations for no good reason.”
