Thomas P.M. Barnett :: Weblog

Excellent, Iran will fix itself from within. The people there still love the US after years of us being the "Great Satan". But what to do about the Sunni Arabs, especially the Salafi extremists? That my friend is the $64,000 question. Perhaps $640B.

Patience with Iran. Deterrence and pressure. Persia is a 3,000 year old civilization, and the mullahs' regime is only 27 years old, and looking rickety. Go for the soft kill. Just as well, the hard kill is not an option right now.

As to the Sunnis -- hunt down and kill the terrorists, punish the governments that support the terrorists. Make it clear that the terrorist route is futile and suicidal, that our way of life, our global economy and those who want to be part of it are not negotiable. Us or them, only one left standing. As to the many, many Sunnis who are not terrorists and who do not support terrorists, they are a civilization of .8B people. They are big boys and have to make their own decisions. Permanent confrontation will mean their physical annihilation, so they need to figure that out and look for alternatives. Beyond that, it is up to them to decide how to work their relationship with the rest of the world. If they want to be like the Apaches who, whatever the merits of their case, were just be in the way of our railroads, the Sunnis will suffer a like fate. I truly hope it does not come to that, for their sake as the victims and our sake as the perpetrators. Mr. Bush's attempt to "bring democracy" to them did not work. They may not get a lot of other chances. I wish them luck. They'll need it.