The Times' Startling New Voice: Roger Cohen

Who is this Roger Cohen who is suddenly the New York Times' most provocative writer?

Yes, I know the name and I've read him over the years but now, suddenly, he is the anti-neoconservative on an editorial page that has published one neocon op-ed writer after another.

Cohen's latest column takes the conventional wisdom on Iran and stands it on its head. Yes, Iran may want a nuclear weapon but for defensive reasons.  For Cohen. Iran is, above all, pragmatic.

"I think pragmatism lies at the core of the revolution’s survival. It led to cooperation with Israel in cold-war days; it ended the Iraq war; it averted an invasion of Afghanistan in 1998 after Iranian diplomats were murdered; it brought post-9/11 cooperation with America on Afghanistan; it explains the ebb and flow of liberalization since 1979; and it makes sense of the Jewish presence.

"Pragmatism is also one way of looking at Iran’s nuclear program. A state facing a nuclear-armed Israel and Pakistan, American invasions in neighboring Iraq and Afghanistan, and noting North Korea’s immunity from assault, might reasonably conclude that preserving the revolution requires nuclear resolve."

Cohen visited Iran recently and concluded that its 25,000 strong Jewish community is not being persecuted. 

"Just how repressive life is for Iran’s Jews is impossible to know. Iran is an un-free society. But this much is clear: the hawks’ case against Iran depends on a vision of an apocalyptic regime — with no sense of its limitations — so frenziedly anti-Semitic that it would accept inevitable nuclear annihilation if it could destroy Israel first.The presence of these Jews undermines that vision. It blunts the hawks’ case; hence the rage."

It's time, Cohen argues, for new thinking on Iran. Are we really afraid that Iran will attack Israel?  Or are we just afraid that Iran's growing power threatens Israel's regional hegemony.

I certainly don't know.  But I'm sure glad this Roger Cohen fellow is there asking the right questions.