An Opportunity Wasted

After 9/11, both the U.S. and Iran were allies against the Taliban. They worked together in Afghanistan to defeat the Taliban and rebuild the Afghan government. At the time, James Dobbins was Bush’s special envoy to Afghanistan and met with the Iranians several times a day. The Iranians were cooperating and their objectives were largely the same as ours, since they had been fighting the Taliban long before we were.

In the fall of 2001, during our military campaign in Afghanistan, Iran cooperated on the ground providing vital information and safe passage of humanitarian supplies. Afterward, they worked alongside the U.S. to establish a constitution and the government of Hamid Karzai.

Nevertheless, Dobbins was surprise to learn Iran was prepared to participate in a program to assist the creation of a new Afghan national army under U.S. leadership. The Iranians were prepared to house, clothe, equip and train as many as 20,000 recruits as part of a broader American led effort. They proposed that their army and our army would collaborate under American leadership in a joint program to train the national Afghan army.

Another, surprising offer was that the Iranians wanted to expand this dialogue to other issues. They were ready to discuss the Middle East peace process, their role with the Palestinian authority and with the Palestinians, support for terrorism. James Dobbins passed that information on to Washington, but never got a response.

Both Dobbins and Hillary Mann the Iran and Afghanistan specialist at the National Security Council were amazed, when Bush announced in his State of the Union Address that Iran was part of the axis of evil.

“I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of their way and let them have it.”- Eisenhower