BOOKS OF THE TIMES: Into the Eye of a Storm, By ROGER COHEN, New York Times, August 5, 2009

GUARDIANS OF THE REVOLUTION
Iran and the World in the Age of the Ayatollahs
By Ray Takeyh
310 pages. Oxford University Press. $27.95.

A nice bit from the NYT review of Roy Takeyh's latest book on Iran:

One of Mr. Takeyh's great merits is to bring sobriety to emotionally charged subjects. Nowhere is this more evident than in his cool dissection of the nationalism and historical angst driving Iran's nuclear politics. He quotes a moderate conservative, Ali Larijani, the speaker of the Majlis, or Parliament: "If Iran becomes atomic Iran, no longer will anyone dare to challenge it because they would have to pay too high a price."

But Mr. Larijani has something else to say in these pages: "We may be sure that the Americans are our enemy. Working with enemies is part of world politics. I believe that a strategy of curbing and reducing disruptions and normalizing relations is itself beneficial."

If I'm advising Iran, I tell them it makes perfect sense to get the bomb before normalizing with the U.S.

But I also tell them to put a muzzle on the president, because his big mouth will get the country bombed by Israel.