Bush and Iran 

Bush and Iran

Fred Kaplan:

[blockquote]The thing is, Iranian leaders really do pay attention to what American officials say. Kenneth Pollack tells an instructive story in his book, The Persian Puzzle: The Conflict Between Iran and America. Shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Bush officials started meeting with Iranian officials. The two countries shared an interest in overthrowing the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, and they took cooperative steps toward that common goal; two decades of mutual hostility began to melt away. Then, in January 2002, President Bush delivered his State of the Union Address—linking Iran with Iraq and North Korea as an "axis of evil"—and the Iranians instantly ended all talks. More than that, the Western-leaning factions within the Iranian regime were delegitimized and crushed.[/blockquote]

Was there ever any kind of strategy, or was it plain stupidity? I guess they thought they were cleverly putting Iraq--the only one of the three they were planning to invade--right in the middle. Holy cow--I think I'm reading between the lines.