Bush Flip-Flops on Iran (love the headline)

[rodeodance]

http://www.slate.com/id/2114704/

Bush Flip-Flops on Iran
If we're lucky, he'll flip-flop on North Korea next.
By Fred Kaplan
Posted Friday, March 11, 2005, at 1:06 PM PT

Committing diplomacy?

Committing diplomacy?
Don't look now, but it seems that George W. Bush is committing diplomacy. The New York Times reports today that Bush has agreed to join France, Britain, and Germany in their nuclear-arms talks with Iran. This marks a major reversal for Bush, who until now has refused to negotiate with any Iranian officials, arguing that to do so would reward them for bad behavior.

Not only is Bush climbing on board the negotiations, he's doing so in a smart way. Bush will go along with the European plan to offer Iranians economic inducements—selling them commercial airplane parts, supporting the country's entry into the World Trade Organization. But in order to get these benefits, the Iranians must agree not merely to suspend but permanently to halt the enrichment of uranium. And the Europeans have agreed that if Iran turns down the offer after a certain amount of time, they will join Bush in calling for sanctions at the U.N. Security Council.

This arrangement amounts to a mutual recognition of two key facts that both parties have tried until now to ignore. Bush apparently recognizes that the talks cannot succeed unless the United States is a party; only Washington can offer the range of benefits and the guarantees of security that might lure Iran into forgoing its nuclear ambitions. At the same time, the Europeans recognize that no accord can be reached unless they appear serious about invoking sanctions in the event the talks do break down; until now, no one has believed the Europeans, especially the French, would forgo revenue from Iranian trade.......

[bahrbearian]

1. Bush won't want to reward people for their bad behavior,

but isn't that his life story, getting rewarded for such things. He's already taking credit for democratizing the Middle East.

[AzDar]

2. diplomacy, my arse...Wee Cowboy has apparently realized he's

already over-extended our military with his misadventures in Iraq.
Once he frees up some "resources", or institutes a draft, we'll see the
"bring 'em on" Bushie aggression again.

[flpoljunkie]

3. Thanks for this post. Fred Kaplan is the best at Slate.

[keymaker]

4. Bush Flip-Flops on Iran

yeah, I mean there's absolutely no chance that Iran will be bought by that kind of bribe. As long as they're threatened by other nations with WMD they will keep the world guessing about their own intentions and capabilities. Since President Putin has already decided to cooperate with them over their nuclear program the idea of going to the Security Council is not going to work :).

keymaker

[Ashamed_American]

5. Thanks.

Good read.


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