Religious Resignation

[kandrathe]

... I quite frankly agree with his suggestion that America talk, open more dialogue, with Iran. The attitude among Bush and his crowd of "we can't talk to these people" and "we won't talk to these people" pisses me off to no end. There was a golden window of opportunity in 2001-2004, to finesse some of the low level contacts we had with Iran into a warming of the cold war between us that began when the Ayatollah Khomeini took over after the Islamic Revolution. That window has been slammed shut, and a decent part of the blame resides squarely in Washington. Teheran hasn't helped its own case lately. (See the IAEA and Iran here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/weekin...broad.html )

At least Obama wants to get back to dealing with Iran on a more substantive level. They are the Big Dog in the Persian Gulf. It is idiotic not to deal with them. My biggest only worry is that he's got a Bill Clintonesque idea about how important it is for Americans to wear blue helmets.

Occhi

I fear it is the Barbary Pirates all over again, but this time with the nuclear arsenal. Europe will be content to continue to pay the black mail. Paying the black mail has been our only solution to North Korea.

Here is the oh so negotiable Iranian president spouting off today "I must announce that the Zionist regime (Israel), with a 60-year record of genocide, plunder, invasion and betrayal is about to die and will soon be erased from the geographical scene," Ahmadinejad said. "Today, the time for the fall of the satanic power of the United States has come and the countdown to the annihilation of the emperor of power and wealth has started," the hard-line president said.

Oh, boy! I hope they get nukes soon!