Hey Paul,
Good news on Iran in the last day or two it would seem.
However, much of this is easier said than done. For example:
"We need to stop meddling in the affairs of other countries and allow them to experience self-determination."
Agreed. But then that'll take a significant shift in other US policies. Iran is a good microcosm of US foreign policy - the US has been interfering in its affairs since the 1950s - often preventing it from advancing and democratising because of the need to keep its oil reserve in the hands of a greedy, easily controlled few.
The world's greatest hotbed of Islamic extremism, Saudi Arabia, has a dispicable regime propped up by the US government - for the same reason. The unthinkableness of non-OPEC, people-controlled oil. Changing this will require more than a climate of "non-interventionalism" - it'll take a committment to environmentalism, renewable energy and far lower reliance on foreign oil.
We can see America's reliance on China in the same light. It's easy to say that we should stop supporting China and let the Chinese people fight for self-determinism - but it's harder to have fiscal prudence, higher taxes and lower public spending, to not put trillions of dollars in bonds into China's hands.
In effect, America needs to change its own internal gluttony - for cheap goods, cheap gas, and low taxes - to enable it to operate a sensible and long-sighted foreign policy.
The short-termism of America's foreign policy over the last 60 years is coming to roost, in the form of Al Quaeda. This will not change without fundamental shifts in US domestic consumption and attitudes.
All the best,
Nikolai
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