Bush's ham-handed efforts to "reach out" to the Iranian people show once again his complete ignorance of history and his utter reliance on the theory that if all you have is a hammer, every problem is a nail. Imagine if North Korean strongman Kim Il Sung were to "reach out" to the American public to overthrow the Bush administration. What sort of response do you think there would be? About the same as the Iranian response to Bush's appeal for regime change in Iran.

Engaging Iran in a meaningful and productive way requires far more finesse and intelligence than the Bush team has now, or ever will, possess. Of course the Iranian government is meddling in Iraq, much the same way that we meddled in Afghanistan when the Russians were there. It was in our interests to destabilize the Russian war in Afghanistan, much as it is in Iran's interest to see America fail in Iraq. The sooner we fail, the sooner we leave Iran's doorstep. That is not to say that we should allow such meddling to occur, but making the situation worse by ratcheting up the paranoia in Iran is only going to make things less stable, not more so.

Iran has been the graveyard of American foreign policy since the overthrow of the Shah in 1979. Our complicity in having supported the Shah's brutal regime has born bitter fruit ever since his overthrow, and trying to suddenly become the "good guys" is not going to happen anytime soon, especially by labeling Iran's Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization.

Vietnam is a good example of turning a former enemy into a friend, so that is not to say it cannot happen in Iran. But not by Bush, who will be forever remembered in the middle east as a tyrant and a warmonger, and not without some reason. Every Iraqi citizen killed by U.S. forces, either rightly or wrongly, breeds a new hatred toward the United States that will be repaid in blood for years to come. Bush has sown the seeds for conflict in the middle east for the next several generations, so he cannot now come across as a peacemaker without being laughed right out of the region. It would be like Hitler suddenly wanting to join B'Nai B'rith.

The only possible way that we can begin to change the dynamics of Iran's politics is to leave Iraq, and just wait patiently. Iran is having problems of its own without the efforts of the United States to destabilize it further. By removing America as a scapegoat for its problems, Iran will have ever increasing problems with its restless population that has grown weary of the strong arm tactics of the ruling Mullahs. There will be a time and a place for America to step in, but it is not now, and it is certainly not with our current administration.

Absolutely correct! If you want to guarantee NO democracy in Iran, have Georgie Boy "reach out".

I believe that whom ever thinks that the Shah's regime was brutal does not have a clue as to the brutality that has been perpetrated by the Mullahs in Iran.

I also believe that the biggest foreign policy blunder has been the Iraq war. Not for the reasons that is being discussed in the public arena but because we could have achieved everything that this administration spoke of when they were beating the war drums for Iraq. Things like "we would be treated a liberators" and "troops being met by civilian population with flowers" etc. This would have certainly happened in Iran. Iran's young and pro western population wishes nothing but a change in the mullah regime. They would embrace such a change with open arms. But as the article stated the population is weary of the intent of US.

Here we have a country led by maniacal mullahs which have diverted there resources to groups around the middle east since the bombing of the USMC HQ in Lebanon until today with Hezbollah, Muktadar Al Sadr, Hamas etc. A regime that we have solid intelligence on their activities and yet we divert our focus by bring down Sadam Hussien. Another maniac, yes, but one that could not do anything. After all there was a no fly zone in effect since 1990 in the northern and souther one third of Iraq.

But while we changed our focus, the Iranian mullahs quietly acquired the nuclear technology which will ultimately lead to acquiring "weapons of mass destruction" !!!

The change in Iran will have to come the same way that the world brought the voice of one ayatollah Khomeini to the Iranian people. Has any one ever pondered how Khomeini came from virtual obscurity to France and then how he was portrayed as the David against Golieth by the world media? We now need to have a similar set of circumstances in which an Iranian voice is brought to the forefront of the world to provide the people of Iran the voice of moderation and change that they thirst for.

The mullahs know that if they loose their grip of power they will forever be wiped off of Iranian society. With a young population, most of whom were born under this regime, and have the highest hatred for the mullahs, I believe that it will certainly be the end of religion in politics in Iran and forever change the landscape of Iran and middle east.

I believe that what President Bush talked about; democracy and change in the middle east, will only come about when you have democracy in Iran. Democracy without mullahs.

All you are saying is that Iraq war was a mistake let us now attack Iran, pretty girls with flowers are waiting for our troops. We listen so much to our own propaganda that we start believing them. Khomeini had massive support in Iran, he and his followers had fought Shah for years, Khomeini was among the most respected clerics in a country where clerics command great respect. If Iranians really hated the clerics they would have kicked them out just as they did the most powerful ruler of his time the Shah of Iran. Don't be fooled by propagandists, if we try to 'liberate' Iran by force the only thing young Iranians will pick up is Klashnikov not flowers nor the ballot paper.

Well said but sadly it seems people of like mind to you are in this day and age percieved as somehow weak, unmanly, and (shudder) unpatriotic. Perhaps someday this will change. Finger's crossed.

Not for Hitler or imperial Japan, nor for Islamofascists. The days of being nice are over. Nice doesn't work. I wish it did. Do an experiment: go to the worse neighbourhood in your town, and try being nice to a gangbanger. So where that gets you.

You stay the course with a failed policy?? You and Bush think alike and ignore history.

Typical Bush suppoorter thinking: The Shah's brutality didn't exist because the Mullahs are brutal. Laughable!

Newsflash for you: People don't forget being brutalized and certainly don't forget that the United States overthrew an elected government in Iran and installed a dictatorship in it's place.

The ONLY way to get rid of the Mullahs is to woo the Iranian people away from their archaic Religious Government with western goods and technology.