"States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world." -George W. Bush, 29 January 2002.
Recently the Bush administration took a tentative first step in its policy toward Axis of Evil charter member Iran. Using an Iraqi government initiative as an opportunity, the United States agreed to meet with the representatives of Syria and Iran, along with those of other neighboring states, in hopes of addressing the troubles in Iraq from a regional perspective. With regard to Iran, what took so long?
When President Bush made his Axis of Evil speech shortly after 9/11, who could know that it contained not the rallying cry of FDR's Date of Infamy speech but was rather another in a number of strategic missteps of our own troubled times? First, the search for a metaphor that would unite and motivate Americans was not a bad idea. Reaching back to World War II and the days of isolation and appeasement that preceded it seemed a reasonable thing to do. Nevertheless, a major attack had occurred, and the public needed more than amorphous terrorist groups to blame.
The ideologues surrounding the new President came up with a simple metric for identifying our enemies-state-sponsored terrorism must be addressed as part of an overall strategy to protect the United States. The original Axis powers in World War II were Germany and Italy-the Rome-Berlin axis. Later, Japan threw in with them. Three "bad guy" powers then-so we needed three "bad guy" powers now. The analogy breaks down because none of the powers the President identified had very much to do with the 9/11 disaster, the boat bombing of the USS Cole (DDG-67), or other terrorist attacks against the United States over the previous ten years. Make no mistake; Iran and Iraq were threats to regional stability and sponsors of regional terrorism, especially against Israel. On the other hand, North Korea was a more serious threat in terms of global terrorism.
In 1997 the Iranian people, in a political upset, elected Mohammed Khatami as their president. A moderate by Iranian standards, Khatami began to introduce moderation and reform into the cumbersome and stagnant Iranian polity. Khatami enjoyed some success, and relations slowly began to thaw between the United States and Iran.
Not long after 9/11, an event of key significance transpired, one that was virtually ignored by the press and politicians in the United States. President Khatami on 9 November 2001 delivered speeches at the United Nations and at Seton Hall University that reiterated his 1998 call for a beneficial "dialogue among civilizations." In addition, he said the United States had been the victim of "a most brutal and inhuman crime" perpetuated by "a cult of fanatics." It was a signal of rapprochement and understanding and was pointedly ignored. The next month the President and his advisors dumped Iran into the bucket with Iraq and North Korea, and a latter-day Axis of Evil emerged-a mistake of strategic proportions. Khatami metaphorically extended the hand of friendship and reconciliation, at least as much as his political circumstances permitted, and the leaders of the United States (and not just the President) slapped it away.
Afterward, the reactionary and radical elements in Iran began a sustained offensive to undermine Khatami and his reformist and moderate allies in the Iranian parliament. By 2004', with U.S. military forces in neighboring Afghanistan and Iraq, Iran found itself in a constitutional crisis and on the brink of civil war. The result, in part owing to the hardened attitude of the United States, was a return to power not just of the conservatives, but the most radical elements of Iranian society, as represented by the new President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
So where are we today? The conference, held in Baghdad on 10 March, produced no breakthroughs, though a follow-on meeting is under discussion. Still, the situation remains perplexing. North Korea is also in talks with the U.S. government. Why would we "make nice" with North Korea and not Iran? The conclusion that most of the world will draw is that North Korea's intransigence and possession of a nuclear device caused us to give Pyongyang more respect than we would give Tehran. It's high time to dump the Axis of Evil rhetoric, right a wrong, and open up a serious dialogue for the normalization of relations with Iran.
Commander Kuehn is an assistant professor of military history at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas.