Word: persianism
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Getting Iran's help in Iraq--and persuading it to give up its quest for a nuclear bomb--will require abandoning our efforts at regime change, muting our human-rights concerns and accepting an Iranian sphere of influence in the Persian Gulf. Obama's opponents will probably depict that kind of deal as defeatist, an admission of the limits of American power in the Middle East. But those limits already exist; the U.S. just hasn't acknowledged them...
...Assad of Syria and President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt remained "cold," with the latter leaving early to return to Cairo. In a speech before the lunch, Mubarak had delivered a veiled jab at Syria's close ties to Iran, spelling out the suspicions of some Arab countries about the Persian state's influence in the Middle East. "It's regrettable that we allow the ambitions of foreign forces to impose their hegemony on the area, to penetrate our Arab world and trade with the blood of Palestinian souls," he said...
...Iran is central to the regional polarization because of its alliance with Syria and backing for Hizballah and Hamas, which the rival moderate camp interprets as Persian meddling in Arab affairs at its expense. "In the past, the Arabs showed their disagreements by closing borders, interrupting trade and massing troops on borders. Today, they use handshakes and lunches to put a civil face on their disagreements," said Mustafa Hamani, chairman of Jordan's weekly newspaper Al-Sijill. "But the Arab rift always remains...
...gathered support from some surprising places abroad - especially since the U.S. invasion - by pitching itself as a viable opposition to the mullahs in Tehran. "They have been extremely clever and very, very effective in their propaganda and lobbying of members of Congress," says Gary Sick, a Persian Gulf expert at Columbia University's Middle East Institute and the author of All Fall Down: America's Tragic Encounter With Iran. "They get all sorts of people to sign their petitions. Many times the Congressmen don't know what they're signing." But others, Sick adds, "are quite aware of the fact...
...Administration - suggests that sometime early in the Obama presidency, spending on the wars started since 9/11 will pass the trillion-dollar mark. Even after adjusting for inflation, that's four times more than America spent fighting World War I, and more than 10 times the cost of 1991's Persian Gulf War (90% of which was paid for by U.S. allies). The war on terrorism looks set to surpass the costs the Korean and Vietnam wars combined, topped only by World War II's price tag of $3.5 trillion...