Iran’s private sector should get our support
Re “Reigning in Iran,” Opinion, Dec. 26
Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) should be reminded that the resurgence of radicalism of the Iranian regime is the direct effect of the ineptitude of the eight years of former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami’s administration, to which U.S. foreign policy based on sanctions and isolation contributed handsomely.
Policies of containment through economic sanctions in a porous world do not work. Former Secretary of State Dean Acheson’s methods for containing communism pushed Mao Tse-tung’s movement in China to greater extremes. Imposing further restrictions and isolating Iran would result in further radicalization and fan the fire of hard-liners.
Instead of blindly following the bankrupt policy of more sanctions, we need to find a way to support the Iranian private sector, which is the engine of economic growth and social change. Let’s hope that we have learned from the past; otherwise, as George Santayana said in 1905, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
NAJMEDIN MESHKATI
Los Angeles
Get the L.A. Times Politics newsletter
Deeply reported insights into legislation, politics and policy from Sacramento, Washington and beyond. In your inbox three times per week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
