It's bad enough that the Bush Administration actually thinks talking with Iran is going to stop them from killing even more of our troops in Iraq. Worse still, these talks officially end our diplomatic isolation of Iran since 1979 when the Iranians took Americans hostage. But it is flat out obscene that the talks were held on Memorial Day. There are Americans at gravesides today mourning loved ones who were cut down by Iranian-backed militias.
Bush further demonstrates that he is more concerned about politics and diplomacy than he is about stopping the enemy using as few American lives as possible.
From FOX News: U.S. Ambassador: Talks With Iran Were 'Successful' and 'Businesslike'.
The United States ambassador in Baghdad said he and his Iranian counterpart agreed broadly on policy toward Iraq during four-hour groundbreaking talks on Monday, but insisted that Iran end its support for militants.During a meeting that U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker described as businesslike, the American said Iran proposed setting up a "trilateral security mechanism" that would include the U.S., Iraq and Iran. Crocker said the proposal would need study in Washington.
"We will consider that when we receive it," Crocker told reporters in the U.S.-controlled Green Zone. "The purpose this meeting was not to arrange other meetings," he said.
The U.S. envoy also said he told the Iranians their country needed to stop arming, funding and training the militants.
"This is about actions not just principles, and I laid out to the Iranians direct, specific concerns about their behavior in Iraq and their support for militias that are fighting Iraqi and coalition forces," Crocker told a Green Zone news conference. ...
Monday's talks, as predicted, had a pinpoint focus: What Washington and Tehran -- separately or together -- could do to contain the sectarian conflagration in Iraq.
"The American side has accusations against Iran and the Iranian side has some remarks on the presence of the American forces on Iraqi lands, which they see as a threat to their government," al-Dabagh said.
But much more encumbers the narrow agenda -- primarily Iran's nuclear program and more than a quarter-century of diplomatic estrangement after the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran.
Further, the Iranian Shiite theocracy fears the Bush administration harbors plans for regime change in Tehran and could act on those desires as it did against Saddam Hussein in Iraq.
Washington and its Sunni Arab allies, on their side, are deeply unnerved by growing Iranian influence in the Middle East and the spread of increasingly radical Islam.
Compounding all that is Iran's open hostility to Israel.
Related posts on this topic:
The Iraq Talks
Unresponsive
Then & Now
Snow Gray
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