RE: Show Me the Money

CJ Harwood writes:

Understand this: Provoking Iran to arrest dual nationals, boat crews crowding/crossing the line-- This assists the GWBush&Co goal to demonize Iran. Easy to understand.

This is a concern for some Iranian reformists. Ones I spoke to this week point out that Bush's Iran democracy program is effectively serving the interests of hard-liners in both Washington and Tehran by increasing rather than decreasing tensions between the two countries.

Some of them believe, rightly or not, that this may have been an intended rather than unintended consequence of the policy--to provoke an Iranian reaction that would further prove that the Iranian regime isn't one that we should do business with.

--By Scott MacLeod/Boston