Is there a productive way to bring Iran into U.S. policy-making?
Absolutely. Iran has a huge interest in Afghanistan. The Iranians do not want to see the Taliban return—the Taliban are Sunni fundamentalists, as opposed to the Shiite branch of Islam that is practiced in Iran. The Iranians also have an enormous interest in seeing an end to the world’s largest opium production, which takes place in Afghanistan, because they are wrestling with narcotics smuggling and the violence that comes with it. And they want stability because they probably would like to sell their oil and natural gas to Pakistan and India. Afghanistan is also a major marketplace for Iranian goods. Is there a way to make a continuing U.S. presence positive for Afghanistan? There is, but my question is whether or not the United States has time to do that. A senior NATO officer said to me, “Afghanistan is a nation of fence-sitters.” The U.S. military was the first foreign military in history that the Afghans, for the most part, welcomed into their country. That goodwill has been waste
