Nuclear peace, JFK and Iran

The deal with Iran is excellent news. Hat’s off to Kerry and Obama.

I’m not Pollyannaish about Iran – its government deprives too many of human rights. Friends spent years in the infamous Evin prison for catching the dislike of Iranian officials. Former president Ahmadinejad’s hostility toward Israel was despicable. The American engineered coup and installation of the Shah in 1953 still rankles there. The attack on our Embassy to keep America out of the 1979 Revolution still rankles here. Since then we have both hurled outrageous rhetoric at each other. None of that makes it easy.

Dealing with the Egyptian Miliary

If we can believe the observations of commentators over more than two centuries, Americans have always wanted to be liked. We want people to like us, not to fear or feel coerced by us. That works well for a democracy where politicians want people to vote for them.

But liking each other is almost irrelevant to negotiations. Lawyers constantly negotiate with people they don’t like. What’s crucial is that we trust each other’s honesty and ethics. The principle difference is that liking the people you’re negotiating with makes it harder to see their motive to do you harm.

The Egyptian generals don’t have to like us. And at least in the short term, they don’t much need us. They will do what they think their own interests require and won’t much be bothered by whether they have warm feelings for America. So if I were in the White House, aside from having a stroke from the stress, I wouldn’t give a bleep for whether the generals like us.

Intransigence – the Auto-immune Disease of Democracy

Obviously I’ve been following the news from Egypt like everyone else. You don’t need commentators to tell you that ousting a democratically elected government is undemocratic and unacceptable. But I want to talk about Morsi’s mistakes because they illustrate a major misunderstanding of democracy.