Iran in Its Intricacy

PARIS � A year has passed since President Obama�s groundbreaking Nowruz offer to Iran of engagement based on mutual respect. Iran is now a different country, its divided regime weaker and confronted by the Green movement, the strongest expression of people power in the Middle East and a beacon for the region.

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Earl Wilson/The New York Times

Roger Cohen

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Obama�s outreach has achieved this: the unsettling of Iran�s revolutionary power structure. That alone was worth the gambit. But the 31-year gridlock in Iranian-American relations endures. Sarah Palin, no less, is now urging Obama to �declare war on Iran� to save his presidency. She�s not alone. Daniel Pipes, the conservative commentator, called a recent National Review column: �How to save the Obama Presidency: Bomb Iran.�