Chinese sun over Iran

Iran's future
Boys walking to school (2011)

In 2011, I had the opportunity to visit Iran for two weeks as part of a group organized by my university alumni association.   We traveled all over the country, from Tehran in the west to Mashad in the east, driving from Kerman in the southern desert, westward through Yazd, continuing to Shiraz, and then north to Esfahan. 

The focus of the visit was on historic, religious, and cultural sites, but much discussion of contemporary politics obviously arose as well.

The people we met were uniformly friendly, talkative, humorous, and good-natured.

Having visited other countries in the region, I was strongly impressed by how modern and efficient Iran appeared.  Its freeways are as good as our own.  Its cities are clean.  There was little obvious poverty, aside from refugees from Afghanistan.  It was one of the few countries outside the West where we had no hesitation in drinking the tap water.

Iran has had, and still has, many economic and political problems. Relative to its neighbors in the Middle East, however, it is a wealthy country -- wealthy not in the sense that it is ruled by a few fabulously wealthy sheikhs, but in terms of the average population.  It has a well educated middle class, although one that is under increasing economic stress.  Iran obviously is -- if one overlooks religious and political differences with its neighbors -- a natural leader for the region.

It's a natural leader, and it would seem to be a country we would do everything possible to befriend, despite the obvious difficulties in dealing with its confusing leadership structure, in confronting its nuclear program, and in overcoming a history of enmity.   But we aren't.  Instead, President Trump has gone out of his way to demonize Iran and to praise Iran's enemies, countries of far less long-term value to the United States.

It makes no sense.  But little that we are now doing in foreign affairs makes sense.  America, at present, essentially has no foreign policy.  All we have are bursts of enmity or of self-deceptive fondness that explode from the psyche of Mr. Trump -- often dependent on the amount of personal adoration other nation's leaders bestow upon him.  We have a Secretary of State who is reportedly on the verge of quitting in despair, a State Department that is demoralized and understaffed, and an incredible number of nations around the world in which there is no permanent American ambassador.

In the New York Times this morning, an article discussed the extensive help that China is giving Iran in developing and updating its railroad system, help that not only increases China's influence throughout the region, but that makes Iran increasingly reliant on China, economically and psychologically.  With a bold foreign policy, and with some empathy for Iran's problems, we could have been in the ascendant position that China is in today. 

Foreign policy is not simply how a nation handles its affairs on a day by day basis.  Properly conducted, foreign policy considers our goals with respect to other countries thirty or forty years from now, and how best to achieve those goals.  As it is, who Mr. Trump will consider our friends -- even six months in the future -- is anyone's guess.

Iran is an excellent example of everything that's wrong with American foreign policy under the current administration.  But it is only one example.  Less obvious examples can be found throughout the world.  By the time 2020 arrives, we will have thrown away much of the good will and political capital that we have accumulated since World War II.  Mr. Trump could not be more harmful to American interests if he were being paid by those who wish us that harm.