This is what I found interesting, yet the US with their 'hawkish' views, were unable or un-willing to accept the Iranian offer. Guess it goes back to 1979 and Jimmy Carter with the hostage situation in Iran.
"HARLAN ULLMAN: Absolutely. The biggest consumer of drugs, particularly marijuana, from Afghanistan is Iran. And I agree entirely with Admiral Fallon. Remember that the Iranians wanted to help us after September 11. At the Berlin conference in January 2002, they proposed that they would support us against the Taliban and what happened? President Bush gave a speech about the axis of evil. Iran had wanted to be on our side against Afghanistan and I think what we needed to do was to have some kind of serious dialogue. Now, if the Iranians would not enter that dialogue or they refused to move forward with their nuclear program in the way that we wanted, then we would have had the credibility and the legitimacy to take strong action in concert with the rest of the world. But we haven't allowed negotiations to take place. I think we have demonised Iran far more than it is required to be. And similarly within China there are many Americans who see China as the looming threat, which is not in my judgment nor in Admiral Fallon's and I think he was taking a very reasonable approach that most senior military people that I know would agree with. Which is very interesting because in some cases the politicians are being far more belligerent than the military, but I think the military have a much better understanding of what needs to be done, and when you look at Iraq and Afghanistan and Pakistan, what needs to be done is the civil sector side, not the military side. And in that regard, despite what President Bush says about us being a nation at war against terror - we're not. We are just failing in the civil side of helping to reconstitute those societies and taking on the difficult issues that ultimately will make those states stable, somewhat more prosperous and therefore less a place for terrorists to use as a secure base."
