| Bam Went the City |
5 January 2003
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No Earthquake in US-Iranian Relations Despite Humanitarian Moves
The city of Bam, Iran, fell down, and last week was devoted to pulling the bodies from the rubble. With a death toll that began around 5,000 and reached 28,000 and up in a day or two, the entire world volunteered to help. The result was the first US civilian flights to the Islamic Republic since the Ayatollah Khomenei took his country down its current path. Some thought this might bring a thaw in relations between Iran and the US. Fat chance.
The Iranian revolution has been a failure by most standards -- revolutions usually are (ask the Russians). Yet in one way, it was a resounding success. There is absolutely no chance after 20 years of theocracy that anything like secularism could exist in the minds of the Iranian people. The Shah's western attitudes have been plucked out of the national psyche root and branch, and foremost among those is the separation of Mosque and Throne.
From the American side, there is a distinct inability to tell the difference between an Iranian and an Arab, even among the relatively well-informed political decision-makers in Washington. The subtle differences in culture and belief that most Middle Easterners understand readily enough are invisible to Americans. Moreover, there is the hostage-taking incident at the end of the Carter administration that, frankly, will never be forgiven nor forgotten by an entire generation of Americans.
There is no way that a human being can consider the deaths of so many thousands and not want to help. The species survives because its members cooperate, and even antagonists like the US and Iran have no reason to stand divided in the face of such a catastrophe. However, life goes on, Bam will be rebuilt, and nothing in Tehran nor in Washington has changed.
The problems that exist in the relationship are fundamentally problems based on how society should be organized, what the role of each individual is in that society, what the duties and responsibilities are between the governors and the governed. In short, there is a basic disagreement on how to live. No amount of humanitarian goodwill is going to overcome that.
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