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• Related Materials

  • Understanding the Iran Crisis
    By Ray Takeyh, Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies
    Testimony
    January 31, 2007

  • Iran’s Involvement in Iraq
    By Lionel Beehner and Greg Bruno, Staff Writer
    Backgrounder
    Updated: March 3, 2008

  • Stop Obsessing About Iran
    By Peter Beinart, Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy
    Article
    January 22, 2007

  • Behind the rise of the Shi'ites
    By Vali R. Nasr, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies
    Op-Ed
    December 19, 2006

  • Mead: Timing of Troop Withdrawal from Iraq Looms Large in Blair, Bush Meeting
    Interview
    May 23, 2006

  See Also

  Iran, Iraq, Defense Strategy, Proliferation

  Now for The Iran Front

  Author:	James F. Hoge Jr., Editor, Peter G. Peterson Chair, Foreign Affairs

  January 11, 2007
  New York Sun

  Despite growing opposition in Congress from both Democrats and Republicans, President Bush is calling for more troops to combat insurgents and more dollars to employ Iraqis in that violence-torn land. But Mr. Bush faces huge obstacles to success. In Congress, critics are scrambling to see what limits can be put on the fresh resources and the time allowed for them to work. As for the public, opinion polls show that a large majority of Americans doubt the tide can be turned or that American security requires it.

  There are three possible outcomes. Against all odds, the escalation could tame the insurgency enough to allow political and economic developments to stabilizeIraq. Or the surge could prove to be the last, unsuccessful effort before withdrawal of most American troops, thus consigning the fate of Iraq to the Iraqis and their nervous neighbors. Or the Bush administration could struggle on inconclusively and leave the mess to the winner of the 2008 American presidential election.

  For several reasons, a pessimistic outcome is likely. The Bush plan cannot work as long as the Maliki government of Iraqrefuses to suppress Shiite militias, not just Sunni ones, or make the political and economic compromises sought by moderate Sunnis. Prime Minister al-Maliki has pledged to cooperate with the Bush plan, but his past behavior strongly suggests he is unable or unwilling to provide more than minimal help. He has not acted as a unity leader but rather as a Shiite advocate, with questionable ties to Iran, and has given scant cause for Sunnis to trust him.

  View full text of article

• 

  New CFR Books

  

  In Termites in the Trading System, Jagdish Bhagwati reveals how the rapid spread of preferential trade agreements endangers the world trading system.

  

  America Between the Wars explores how the decisions and debates of the years between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Twin Towers shaped the events, arguments, and politics of the world we live in today.

  

  In The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State, Noah Feldman tells the story behind the increasingly popular call for the establishment of the sharia—the law of the traditional Islamic state—in the modern Muslim world.

  Complete list of CFR Books.

  

  

  New Independent Task Force Reports

  Confronting Climate Change

  This report argues that the United States must lead with domestic action on climate change and proposes a U.S. negotiating strategy for a global UN climate agreement that includes commitments from all major economies, while also promoting a less formal Partnership for Climate Cooperation that would focus the world's largest emitters on implementing aggressive emissions reductions.

  U.S.-Latin America Relations: A New Direction for a New Reality

  This Task Force report examines changes in Latin America and in U.S. influence there, while taking account of the region's enduring importance to the United States. The Task Force offers an agenda for U.S. policy toward Latin America and identifies four critical areas that should provide the basis of a new U.S. approach.

  About Independent Task Forces at the Council.

  

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