The Iran-India Pipeline

America is very, very stupid if they keep opposing the natty gas pipeline between Iran and India. Aside from the points Perkovich and Prasad bring up in their op-ed (clean gas for India, cooperation between India and Pakistan, development of Iranian natural gas, rather than nuclear, resources), tying Iran to so much Indian revenue would create another point of pressure that can be brought to bear when Iran wants to misbehave. If we can make a deal with India that we'll throw our support behind the venture (and maybe help them out in some other venues) so long as they pledge to use their economic influence to keep Iran in line, we'd have a best of both worlds situation. India would have some clean energy that wouldn't destroy their -- and our -- environment and Iran would have a partner who they'd need to remain in good standing with and who could thus demand some degree of responsible behavior from them. Blocking this pipeline out of simple spite would be the most myopic, short-sighted move imaginable.