 The question really here is not whether the dialogue pays off. It is what we find over time. There are two different ways Iran can look at Iraq, and that is the critical issue at the moment. One is this is an opportunity, a developing power vacuum, where the United States is essentially going to win its battles for it and leave. The other is it is ethnically different. There are enough divisions between Iranian and Iraqi Shiites in religion, in prestige, so that any effort to dominate Iraq would be counterproductive. What Iran needs is what the United States needs, a stable Iraq. Iran in theory has the same interest in avoiding any broader confrontation between Sunni and Shiite that would isolate Iran or create tensions with its southern Gulf neighbors. It has no need for further problems with the United States, which could already complicate the problems created by its efforts to acquire nuclear weapons and its treatment of Israel. So in a world in which there are really rational bargainers, Iran might have a compromise with the United States. In practice, both countries come to this meeting not only understanding each other, but with a great deal of emotion and ideological baggage and denial. It is far from clear what's going to happen.