Rescuing the future.

• Author: Thomson, John
• Position: Iraqi-American relations

AMERICA'S Iraqi experience since the end of its brilliant military campaign has been an object lesson in what not to do. However, it is not too late to reverse the downward spiral and to implement in clarity and conviction what can and should be done to bring peace and stability to the country and the region.

It is a self-defeating urban myth that Americans have lost the respect and support of Iraqis. The overwhelming majority of Iraqi leaders and men in the street are grateful and hopeful that America will stay the course by providing security and guidance, until Iraqi forces and governmental structures are in place.

There are three constituencies the coalition will never win over: Iraqi Ba'athi and assorted Muslim fanatics; Al-Qaeda and other foreign inspired terrorist groups; and neighboring nations' governments, including most significantly Sandi Arabia, Egypt, Syria and Iran. The Ba'athi diehards despair of the loss of their perks and power under Saddam Hussein, and the firebrands are would-be tyrants supported by the mullahcracy in Tehran. The foreign terror organizations know that a stable Iraq will give hope and opportunity for peaceful change to their popular support base in the region. For the same reasons autocratic, despotic regimes fear for their crowns and lifetime presidencies.

A critical step for improving relations with Iraq's Shi'a is for the United States to open direct discussions between Grand Ayatollah Ali-Muhammad Sistani and a senior U.S. representative. Having made the egregious mistake of treating Sistani like a 19th-century Japanese emperor, speaking only via his emissaries, the arrival in Iraq of Ambassador John Negroponte with letters from President Bush can create the basis for mutually face-saving and profitable talks with the country's single most influential Shi'a leader. Undeniably important, Sistani is primus inter pares of Iraq's Shi'a clergy. The perception of further American kowtowing can only result in jealousy among his colleagues.

Another doubly important way to improve U.S.-Iraq relations is for the United States to cease discussions with Iran's leadership, whom Sistani and many other Shi'a clergy in Iraq despise. President Bush correctly identified Iran as a charter member of the Axis of Evil 18 months ago, and the reigning mullahs wish America no luck whatever. Tehran provides inspiration and support for the bellicose rebel strongman Moqtada Sadr. Talks between Washington and Tehran do not just...