Pollack: "...Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine: elections alone, do not constitute democracy"

Brookings' Pollack, calling on an "IRAQ WAR REDUX?".... In the National Interest, here

"... Friday’s elections should remind us of this reality. In the end, Iran is not a democracy. Even if its elections are fair and free (and again, there is a great deal of evidence to suggest that they are not), it has too few of the other critical aspects of democracy to qualify. Perhaps we should remember the lesson of the Bush 43 administration’s catastrophic insistence on premature elections in Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine: elections alone—even when they are fair and free—do not constitute democracy.

With regard to international relations with Iran, this reality, and the uncertainties it produces, ought to be weighed carefully in at least two related arenas. First, the world should be less trusting of an Iranian regime with the capacity to produce nuclear weapons (even if it does not actually field an arsenal) than it is of other nations in similar positions.....

Second, even an agreement with Tehran itself must be treated with a certain skepticism because of the untrustworthiness, or simply the opacity, of the regime. ...

This is not an argument against trying to resolve our differences with Iran diplomatically (no? you could've fooled me?!). Whether we like the Iranian government or not, our differences remain and remain very important, and they would best be settled by peaceful negotiation. These elections do not change those basic facts. But they underscore the point that with Iran, Ronald Reagan’s famous dictum of “trust, but verify” may be overly optimistic. Whatever the truth about Friday’s elections, they should remind us that caution, not confidence, should be our watchword when it comes to Iran."