On Oct 13, 2007, at 11:18 PM, Julio Huato wrote:
> But Americans (workers or not) don't have to love everything the
> Iranians do. A new U.S. foreign policy doesn't mean lovy-dovy
> relationships with everybody regardless of their conduct. It only
> means that Americans (and their agency, their state) are committed (in
> fact, constrained) to using the most civilized methods to address
> their differences with the Iranians. If, on top of that, the new
> foreign policy is in a position to induce the cooperation among
> workers of all nations, then that'd be further progress.
Of course. And I think an "it's none of our business" approach would have a lot of popular appeal, though of course the ruling class would fight it hard. I don't think you'd have to preface the argument with a long analysis of the suckiness of the Iranian regime (or, for that matter, the deeper suckiness of the Saudi Arabian regime). But it's inevitable that it's going to come up in conversation or debate, and I don't see any purpose in being evasive or dishonest in answering.