Israel killing 'hostages': US Elder Statesman Still Makes Sense

It does not matter whether you do not agree with your adversary. As long as the other party makes sense, it is a pleasure to have a discourse. Of these dying breed is Brzezinski. A few days ago, he spoke at a dinner that was filled with US foreign policy brainpower. Enjoy, for few dare to speak honestly these days, afraid of the AIPAC compliance officers:

"I hate to say this but I will say it. I think what the Israelis are doing today for example in Lebanon is in effect, in effect--maybe not in intent--the killing of hostages. The killing of hostages. Because when you kill 300 people, 400 people, who have nothing to do with the provocations Hezbollah staged, but you do it in effect deliberately by being indifferent to the scale of collateral damage, you’re killing hostages in the hope of intimidating those that you want to intimidate. And more likely than not you will not intimidate them. You’ll simply outrage them and make them into permanent enemies with the number of such enemies increasing.

" . . . . In the final analysis, Iran is a serious country, it’s not Iraq. It’s going to be there. It’s going to be a player. And in the longer historical term, it has all of the preconditions for a constructive internal evolution if you measure it by rates of literacy, access to higher education, the role of women in society, a sense of tradition and status which is real.

"I’m convinced that the mullahs are part of the past in Iran, not its future. But that process can change in Iran, not in a confrontation but through engagement. I think if we pursue these policies, we can perhaps avert the dangers that we face but if we do not, I fear that the region will explode, and for that matter, Israel will be in the long run in great jeopardy.

"When we accept today’s realities, American pre-eminence in Middle East affairs is in danger and without correction, our primacy may last for a short duration."