The strategy is to open up communication so that there is a free flowing of information among all parties. That flies in the face of what traditionalists would call "conventional wisdom." But such conventional wisdom is not really wisdom but more the habitual approach that has been handed down over decades. The very idea of not confronting Iran, as the first step, but, instead, talking to Iran as the first step makes the uninformed, untrained traditionalists very edgy. They simply don't get it.

The science and skills of interpersonal communication are exciting to us who study and teach them, and it is largely ignored by those who are steeped in the traditions of competitive organizations and nations striving to see who will be number one. The very idea of their needing to be number one is dysfunctional, counterproductive, and will not help us solve our national and international problems.

We need to remain focused on building a global team committed to (a) keeping the peace, (b) addressing economic problems, and (c) addressing the growing environmental crisis. The folks insisting on the US being number one, being confrontational, and expanding the empire are highly out of touch, highly counterproductive, and seriously dysfunctional.

So far, Obama and Clinton have it right. Lowball the conflict, focus on opening up communication, begin the discussion to address mutual interests, seek compromise, and don't give anything away.

People who want to fret about the our serious problems where we may have to exercise US military might should be looking at what the Taliban are doing in the Swat region of India after promising to be compassionate. Anyone who opposes them or even speaks quietly to complain faces the possibility of beheading or having nose and ears cut off. Now their leader has, in a national broadcast, promised to bring all of Pakistan under Taliban rule.

If 9/11 was like Pearl Harbor, then the Pakistani government giving the Taliban the Swat region is like Chamberlain's Munich agreement with the Nazis, an attempt at appeasement that was doomed to failure. Given SWAT, the Taliban, like Hitler, are now promising to take everything. The Taliban are the new Nazis. The longer we diddle around instead of directly confronting them, and the nuclear weapons they would like to control, the worse it will finally be.

Regarding how to fight them, we don't need to occupy nations as there will be no front lines. We simply need to find them and continually beat at them until their structures collapse and they can no longer intimidate the masses. Most importantly, we must identify them as "criminal elements" that are seeking power for its own sake and misusing religion as a weapon to intimidate Muslims. They are just more mentally unbalanced people who are obsessed with power. We need to call it what it is.

Channing
Ventura CA USA

After all, they send people to fly airplanes into our tall buildings, cause us to invade and defend a neighboring country or two, disrupt our ships through the red sea, keep consuming oil so we Americans can't consume it ourselves, they keep moving our manufacturing & IT jobs offshore.

They export an extreme form of Islam, and fund disruption all over the world. The hold us hostage because of their control of OPEC.

And the Iranian invention and use invention of the disastrous financial instruments of mass destruction, derivatives and gambling with naked CDS are just the final straw.

They are such bad people. They've done us so much damage, They Must Be Punished.

I did enjoy this part:

http://tpmtv.talkingpointsmemo.com/?id=2409880

_{I feel the American worker has been sacrificed to the capitalist idols in the ancient Mayan fashion. - Sue Lamb, NYT reader}