It seems the US is going to talk the happy talk with Iran (or at least listen). According to the AP: “In a break with past Bush administration policy, a top U.S. diplomat will for the first time join colleagues from other world powers at a meeting with Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator…”
Well, not to quibble but we have been here before, although perhaps not on nuclear issues, but who knows even about that? Secret back channel negotiations have always been a diplomatic staple. Still it seems Ahmadinejad is obsessed with meeting the Americans face-to-face and mano-a-mano: “At the same time, though, he said he would welcome direct, bilateral talks with the U.S. if both parties are on ‘equal footing’ and told state television such talks could happen ‘in the near future.’ He did not elaborate nor say whether any definite plans were under way.”
Equal footing? Well, let’s give the man what he wants. Why not propose the President of the United States meets with his Iranian counterpart to iron things out?
That, however, is of course not Ahamdinejad. As the bien pensants are repeatedly reminding and reassuring us when Crazy Ahmad makes one of his apocalyptic/racist pronouncements, he is not the real power in Iran. We should not be alarmed. The real power is Ayatollah Khamenei.
Fine. That being the case, why should a President Bush (or Obama… or McCain) waste time negotiating with a semi-elected figurehead who goes around making statements like there are no gays in Iran? It’s insulting and unequal. So I propose our President request a direct meeting with his peer, their head of state, Khamenei. I know the State Department would snort because such things are “not done,” but why? We are at a moment of historic impasse with drastic actions being contemplated. Why not talk with the Ayatollah, exposing his answers for the world to see? Perhaps whatever President could begin by asking him if he supports a period of global chaos to bring forth the Shia Mahdi. That would be interesting. So I say, let’s start negotiating – but with the right man.
Forget about “As the World Turns”, we have here our first global soap opera, “As the Centrifuges Whirl”, or, “The Mahdi and Me” starring that scintillating screen legend, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
These are desperate, end game times for Ahmadinejad, Khamenei & Co. If they don’t soon start either annexing neighboring oil-rich countries, or breaking into the big-time nuclear extortion game, they’re done. The only way they can do either is to get The Bomba, their ticket to global extortion nirvana. As they constantly repeat to all and sundry, they will never, ever give up their nuclear ambitions. Is the State Department collectively deaf and stupid? No, not entirely, just just scared witless, and willfully believing only what they want to believe.
I get the distinct feeling that old Mahmoud has been watching carefully as Kim Jong Il tied our State Department up in knots, signed the pretty piece of paper, collected all the many, many goodies on offer, AND KEPT HIS NUKES. It’s clear, the Americans can be had — he doesn’t even worry about the Europeans, they’re a joke to him. (Didn’t no less a figure than Bernard Lewis opine recently that all of Europe would be Muslim before, perhaps well before the end of this century?!) Mahmoud figures that if crazy Kim can work this nuke scam, imagine what new and lucrative twists he and his clever lads can foist upon the Great Satan, AND STILL KEEP THE NUKES. And Israel, in the middle of all this, courageous as an oak amidst summer lightening, is governed by the greatest collection of idiots in its history (why should we be the only ones…..). Or the alternative possibility: is Ahmadinejad really crazy enough to start lobbing nukes?
Wonderful prospects…. Small things perhaps in the end? Since far before Ptolemy thought to make a note of it, Hydra has been slithering across the sky, just as tonight it has made its way above Jupiter and the Moon. We’ve only to look, and time folds up like a fan, then and now both offering themselves to be lived as one eternal present moment. It’s in these moments of eternity under the lens of consciousness that life unfurls its true surprises. Le stelle.
Barry Farber (the one from radio) told the story of a famous Jazz musician when asked about a US – USSR stalemate that had to do with weather or not someone should be allowed to sit (credentials) at the UN – the famous jazz musician is said to have demurred, “If he wants to sit let him sit”.
I think we should give Iran every opportunity to commit seppuku.
I think the Hussein (not the one running for president) time line should be our guide.
There is no substitute for victory. Wait… maybe we should ask the Hussein that’s running. As Hillary found out for us, Obama just might be immortal – in witch case it’s all moot.
Obama just might be our Hancock
I just came back from the best all star game ever. (mind you its hard for a red sox fan to have fun a the stadium)
So, forgiveme if I stay too long, or just keep celebrating.
I just want to type the name J D Drew.
If it ever came to me having to fight Islam hand to hand, I would do it just so we could keep baseball.
Crow broke my hart in tears singing the anthem. Did anybody see a Bomber overhead? it wasant loud at all.
Anyway, I’m lucky to be able to be close to something like that.
I was taught that the first rule of negotiating is that each side has to have something that the other side wants. I’m not exactly sure what Iran wants from the US, other than our extinction.
Scott
Two reasons: Yalta and Vienna. Ambiguity and uncertainty are powerful motivations for caution. It matters not that the conclusions reached by the other side are wrong. Conclusions lead to actions. Actions on the world scene are usually quite unpleasant.
Talk, don’t talk. Bi-lateral, multi-lateral. Blah, blah, blah. While the west debates which failed method to use with Iran they continue the slow march to getting their bombs, which they have announced openly and often that they won’t stop and they won’t give up. The fact that they slow the pace now and then is just classic misdirection that does not hide the fact that within 2 to 10 years Iran will be part of the nuclear club. Maybe sooner. The west is being played and the only force that seems to have the will to stop Iran, Israel, knows that she will be hung out to dry by the world community if she acts unilaterally. Let’s face it, Iran is getting the bomb and all this talk about talk is simply an excuse to do nothing.
If a “President” Obama faces any Iranian diplomat across a conference table, said Iranian (after their whole delegation picks itself off the floor from guffawing at Obama’s meaningless glitzy doublespeak) will make more a fool of O. than Khruschev did of JFK preceding the Soviet installation of nukes in Cuba.
Makes sense, although it would be a strange conversation, whether closed or open. Secular views and religious ones would flash past each other with probably no meeting ground whatsoever. But it certainly would be more pertinent than a chat with Mahmoud the Mad.
Iran’s “answers” have already been “exposed for world to see” both in deeds and rhetoric. The West just refuses to face the awful truth and Iran is counting on this mass denial from the West to achieve their goal of nuclear weapons. This discussion is very clever and all of the answers above all have merit except for the simple fact that Iran has absolutly no intention of stopping their program and the rest of the World seems to be banking on the absurd notion that if we just continue to tell Iran that we really, really, really think they are unreasonable fellows they will somehow change their minds. Their seems to be three options. Accept the fact that Iran is getting the bomb and hunker down and pray that they will never use it. Number two is a devastating and complete economic boycott that accepts the cold fact that innocent Iranians will suffer and die during this action. Number three is military action. The West doesn’t seem to have the ability or nerve to carry out options two or three and it is trying to carry out the first option without admitting to it. All the rest of this blather is simply hot air. Well written but pointless.
Will the price of success in Iraq be a nuclear Iran?
You would hope we could do better… so far we show little resolve.
Bush is not talking about direct talks between himself and anyone so far as I know. This is about the US doing something like what the Europeans have been doing, talking with certain government officials from Iran about their nuclear program. I was surprised that the North Koreans actually seem to have lived up to their end of the bargain in their talks, so far. Of course that could change anytime, the NK do not have a good track record. But this sounds like something like that. It is not the same thing Obama was talking about.
I have wondered if the US is doing this to get something we want or need from the Europeans or someone else. I always have the feeling there is more to things than we know.
One big difference between Bush and Obama on this? Bush just might use military force and the mullahs know it.
Scott;
I agree- but I have something to add. The US State department has its cultural foundations in the in small New England liberal arts colleges which train our future diplomats. We need diplomats who are trained differently, and know how to negotiate with thugs.
Other thugs are good at this. We need to lay out some offers to crime families: Turn State’s Evidence, and we’ll get you a new job- in the State Department. A thug would know how to put something on the table that Iran would want from us. Like, maybe, their continued survival. And he would know how to do it just vaguely enough so we wouldn’t get called on it.
Ben