POLLACK ON IRAN. Since Ken Pollack seems to have re-emerged as a figure of controversy, I thought it might be worth noting what his actual views on Iran are. He thinks we ought to invade just like in Iraq engage in some diplomacy. Or to quote from his essay "A Grand Strategy for the Middle East" in the Progressive Policy Institute's book, With All Our Might: A Progressive Strategy for Defeating Jihadism and Defending Liberty, "It is crucial that the United States engage with like-minded states to develop a multilateral approach that would impose graduated economic sanctions on Iran if its intransigence continues. At the same time, the United States should offer Teheran security guarantees, properly safeguarded nuclear energy, and economic incentives (including the lifting of U.S. sanctions) if Iran is willing to sever its ties to terrorist groups, renounce its efforts to develop the nuclear fuel cycle, and accede to a comprehensive inspections and monitoring regime to verify their compliance."
Personally, I wouldn't worry all that much about Iranian ties to Hezbollah if that proved to be the actual sticking point for some reason, but this seems basically sound to me. See also my classic December 2004 interview with Pollack on Iran.
--Matthew Yglesias
