Mr. 30% Attacks

Everyone's least favorite President is using a trip to a foreign country to attack those who think diplomacy is not a four letter word.

"Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along," said Bush, in what White House aides privately acknowledged was a reference to calls by Obama and other Democrats for the U.S. president to sit down for talks with leaders like Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

"We have heard this foolish delusion before," Bush said in remarks to the Israeli Knesset. "As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American Senator declared: 'Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it is — the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history."

Yes, because every single foreign policy decision we ever make is comparable to Germany circa 1939.

Lets point out at least one obvious difference. Iran hasn't invaded another territory. By the time Poland rolled around, Hitler had amassed one of the largest armies known to man (especially known to Europe), and he had already taken the Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia and Albania.

The other difference, at any time we can (as Sen. Clinton so eloquently pointed out), obliterate Iran, or just about any other country we so choose. In fact, there are many countries with this ability to annihilate Iran, one of those being Israel itself.

There is a difference between negotiating with an equal, or stronger power (as was the case with Europe negotiating with Germany), than there is talking to a weaker power. We have the upper hand, and Iran knows it. So the question is, do they have the same sense of self-preservation that all other countries have? I believe they do, as they haven't shown any willingness to date to commit suicide by attacking Israel (at least directly) or any other country for that matter.

We have three options, invade, ignore, or engage. We have neither the will nor really the capacity to invade. We've been trying the ignore option and that hasn't exactly worked out. So lets try engagement and see where that gets us. Of course, this doesn't mean the President takes a trip to Tehran, but we do have this lovely island called Manhattan, and on this island is an organization called the United Nations, where leaders from all around the world come to meet. Is it outside the realm of possibilities that we could setup a meeting there, without television cameras, to discuss some of the issues we have?

Of course there is always the possibility that nothing positive will come of such meetings, but there is the chance that something might...and we ought to explore all options available to us before we let the situation in West Asia devolve to the point where another military conflict, which we can ill afford, arises due to our inaction and intransigence.

Update: Bush the Uniter?

Update II: Joe Biden responds to Lame Duck Dubya:

“This is bullshit, this is malarkey. This is outrageous, for the president of the United States to go to a foreign country, to sit in the Knesset . . . and make this kind of ridiculous statement.”

Remember when the Dixie Chicks, private citizen musicians, nearly had their career ruined for saying they were ashamed the President was from their home state? This is 10 times worse to have a sitting President use a foreign Government's legislature as the place to launch a political attack on a US Senator.