As if Iraq and Afghanistan were not enough, one more venture was planned by the neo-cons in the Bush administration. This was done, in spite of the fact that a highly respected Iraq Crisis Report has pleaded for involving Iran in a dialogue to solve the Iraqi crisis, and also to resolve the Palestinian issue. The Bush administration has not learnt a lesson from the Republican Party’s defeat in the midterm elections, which was also a referendum against similar hostile ventures.

The remaining two years of the Bush administration will be a testing time for the American people as well as for the world community. Although the Democrat-dominated Congress will exercise its function of checks and balances, the President still has the ability to create a crisis by improvising various methods or by creating conditions in which Congress will have no option but to go along with the Chief Executive.

Experience in Iraq, and even Afghanistan, demonstrates that even a superpower has its limitations and that the resistance to it can be much more stiff and lethal than ever anticipated. Iran is a large country with a population of over 60 million. Its people are also more united than those in the two neighbouring countries. Furthermore, any misadventure against Iran can prompt that country to completely destabilise the already precarious situation in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Iran also has sufficient leverage in Lebanon and other parts of the Middle East and can create problems for the United States.

In the interest of world peace, and for its own sake, the Bush administration would be better advised to restrain itself. Dialogue, as the Baker-Hamilton Report has recommended, is the best way to solve regional issues.