Former Assistant Secretary of State Elliot Abrams (convicted of lying to Congress) writes that Iranians are incapable of negotiating.
No, Elliot, baby, that’s your wife Rachel Decter Abrams, who wrote that the only way to negotiate with Palestinians is to kill them all.
Ok, you get them mixed up.
Anyway, read this from Elliot and then read the rest of the piece. Don’t cry for him though. If Romney is elected, he will be back in power again although, due to his perjury, he will be in a post that does not require confirmation. No Senate will confirm a guy who lied to Congress under oath.
The cable is an analysis of the “underlying cultural and psychological qualities” that explain the difficulties the embassy had been having in negotiations with the new regime. In one famous line, the cable claims that “Perhaps the single dominant aspect of the Persian psyche is an overriding egoism … that leaves little room for understanding points of view other than one’s own.” There is also a “pervasive unease about the nature of the world in which … nothing is permanent and … hostile forces abound.” Persians therefore see themselves as “obviously justified in using almost any means available to exploit such opportunities” to protect themselves. Tomseth then adds that Persians have a poor understanding of causality, “an aversion to accepting responsibility for one’s actions,” and resist “the idea that Iranian behavior has consequences” on American policy.
