US assurances on Iran are ambiguous
Many foreign press organizations have drawn special attention to the remark made by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice following her talks on Tuesday with Greece’s Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis – namely that «Iran is not Iraq.» The phrase in itself does not necessarily imply that the USA has ruled out a military offensive against Iran (indeed, Rice stated quite clearly that US President George Bush has left all options on the table); rather, what the phrase is intended to convey is that America’s approach to Iran will be different from Iraq. With America’s wounds still fresh from the Iraq war and Bush’s hopes for a swift and easy solution in the postwar country well and truly dashed, it is obvious that the USA will think long and hard before launching another offensive, this time in Iran. For starters, it will be very difficult for the Bush administration to compose a «coalition of the willing» as it had done for Iraq. Following al-Qaida’s horrific terrorist attacks in London and Madrid, America’s European allies are hesitant about getting involved and more willing to pay heed to their peoples’ objections to their involvement in such offensives. Then there is also American public opinion, which appears very different today to what it was in the countdown to the Iraq war as hundreds of US soldiers are being flown back to their homeland in coffins, while a consensus grows that the war on Iraq was a mistake and that disengagement from the feuding country is no mean task.
