Could Trump’s Relentless Self-seeking Work a “Miracle” with Iran?

“Language is not logical; it’s psychological.” — Ira Kleinman, my high-school Russian teacher, circa 1960.

“Love thy enemy.” — Jesus of Nazareth, circa 0 CE.

Before you click out, consider two things. The first is the greatest “miracle” in our species’ short, six-thousand-year recorded history.

Our most brutal and devastating war ever caused a huge loss of life. An estimated 6.9 million fighters and civilians died just in Germany, and 2.6 million just in Japan. Yet today those two nations, despite all of Trump’s craziness, are still our strongest and most important allies.

Our own postwar behavior—the Marshall Plan (in Germany) and our enlightened postwar occupation of Japan—worked this “miracle.” For more on how this “miracle” confirmed Jesus’ admonition, click here.

The second uniquely human thing to consider is how little boys sometimes make friends. It doesn’t happen every day. But sometimes a lifelong friendship begins with fisticuffs (which cause no permanent damage). The fight leads to mutual respect, curiosity and eventually to liking. Friendships like that expand my Russian teacher’s observation about language to human behavior generally.

How might this work with Iran? Well, out of the blue, Trump has proposed that the US and Iran share some sort of “dominion” over the Strait of Hormuz, charge some kind of “toll” over the oil and gas passing through it, and so share a steady source of revenue.

Presumably, the US would provide the “heavy lifting” of military power to police the strait and keep it safe. Iran, through propinquity, acquiescence and perhaps some cooperative policing, would help keep the flow of fossil fuels strong and peaceful and the global economy on track. The two nations would share a steady revenue stream that, because of the high prices for oil and gas (no doubt increasing as they run out), would hardly impair the global economy.

The basic elements of a post-World-War-II-type reconciliation are all there. Like both Germany and Japan, Iran is half a world away from us. It’s hardly a natural enemy. (If we were neighbors, that would bring Jesus’ second great admonition into play: “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” Arguably that’s the harder one to follow, as in Israel’s West Bank.)

Despite all the emotion on both sides, our longstanding enmity with the Islamic Republic of Iran has been mostly a war of words. In the present conflict, for example, Iran has lost a lot of buildings and a lot of weapons and infrastructure, but its estimated deaths of civilians range from 2,076 to 7,650, and of fighters from 1,221 to over six thousand. (These wide ranges reflect the uncertainty of the estimates amidst the fog of war.)

Every unnecessary human death matters, of course. But compared to the losses in World War II, which helped forge our strong alliances with Germany and Japan, these are minuscule. A medium sized near-city earthquake in that part of the world can cause more loss of life.

Such a reconciliation—maybe even an alliance—between the US and Iran could have several advantages for both nations and for our species. First and foremost, it would guarantee a steady supply, as well as stable and lower prices, for fossil fuels globally during the crucial period of transition to renewable and nuclear energy. Second, by raising the prices a bit to accommodate the US’ and Iran’s “toll,” it would help motivate a global transition to renewable and nuclear energy, thus reducing the acceleration of planetary heating and saving remaining fossil fuels for use as feedstocks for paint, chemicals, medicines and other industrial uses. Third, by turning our enmity with Iran into an alliance, it would provide a bulwark in the Middle East (even if shaky at first) against Russian expansionism and meddling. Fourth, by providing Iran with money to invest in desalinization plants, it would help solve Iran’s most pressing medium-term problem: the drying up of its rivers and other sources of fresh water amidst planetary heating. Finally, by putting Iran’s enmity with its strongest enemy to rest, it would provide a basis for rapid industrialization, modernization and economic progress throughout the entire Middle East—something that the Gulf Arab states seem increasingly interested in pursuing.

I yield to no one in my disapproval and loathing of Donald Trump. In almost every way, this demented, erratic, senile narcissist is a menace to our nation’s and our species’ welfare. But if, in this specific instance, he can “make a deal” that resolves a half-century-old mindless enmity based on little more than other deranged old mens’ reading of ancient scriptures, I’d be all for it.

Perhaps more than most, I can appreciate what kind of a friend Iran could be to us. In the 1960s I knew a physics student from Iran at UC Berkeley. He was a good man with a great sense of humor and humanity, albeit an over-the-top skirt chaser. Decades later, while I was a law professor, another educated Iranian reached out to me to inquire about my treatise on the law of licensing and establish a working relationship over half a globe and an immense cultural divide.

Both seemed fine men, well educated and “modern” in every way. I won’t name them for fear of having an adverse impact on their lives in what is now precariously balanced between theocratic Hell and a modern, educated, economically powerful nation. But what an ally Iran would make if we could just tilt its now-precarious balance in the right direction!

Today, the greatest threat to global peace, to our weaning ourselves rationally from fossils fuels, and to a rational global order to replace the Enlightenment’s dying embers is, by far, Vladimir Putin’s Russia. If we have a chance, with a simple monetarily favorable deal, to turn Iran from an enemy into an ally as we did with postwar Germany and Japan, we should grab it with both hands and never let go.