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Ear to the Ground

Kerry: U.S., Iran Have Plenty to Talk About

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Posted on May 24, 2008
Ahmadinejad
blog.ecr.co.za

Time to negotiate?: John Kerry thinks that the next U.S. president should open a dialogue with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (above).

Sen. John Kerry (remember him?) has penned an Op-Ed for The Washington Post, taking issue with President Bush’s—and by extension, John McCain’s—argument that engaging in talks with Iran would constitute a dangerous gesture of “appeasement.” The No. 1 reason Kerry thinks the GOP leaders’ stance is wrong? Well, “In short, not talking to Iran has failed. Miserably.”


John Kerry in The Washington Post:

Bush engages in self-deception arguing that not engaging Iran has worked. In fact, Iran has grown stronger: continuing to master the nuclear fuel cycle; arming militias in Iraq and Lebanon; bolstering extremist anti-Israeli proxies. It has embraced Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and spends lavishly to rebuild Afghanistan, gaining influence across the region.

Instead of backing Bush’s toxic rhetoric, McCain should have called George H.W. Bush’s secretary of state, James Baker. After years of stonewalling, the administration grudgingly tested the Baker-Hamilton report’s recommendation and opened talks with Iran—albeit low-level dialogue restricted to the subject of Iraq. Is James Baker an appeaser, too?


While the president attacks political opponents from the Knesset, responsible members of his own administration meet face to face with Iranians. Yes, Ahmadinejad’s words often are abhorrent, and often Iran has played a poisonous role in Middle East politics. But when our ambassador to Iraq meets with his Iranian counterpart, he isn’t courting “the false comfort of appeasement”—he is facing the reality that Iran exerts influence in Iraq. That’s why Defense Secretary Bob Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have called for engaging Iran. Appeasers all? Nonsense.

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By StepenL, May 26, 2008 at 9:09 pm Link to this comment

Your grasp of WWII is not very solid. I would suggest you read The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.

Among other things you will learn that Stalin wanted ALL of Eastern Europe and So did Hitler.  Russia went to war with Hitler over Europe.  Stalin was building his forces to strike so Hitler struck first.

I’m afraid you have your History wrong and thus the legs for supporting your arguement do not exist.

Hitler should have been put down when he first started violating the WWI aggreements and building his army to attack the west.  The Appeasement that allowed him to build a superior military went on for many years with disastorous consequences…but many western companies got very rich helping Hitler to rebuild Germanies military!

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By StepenL, May 26, 2008 at 9:03 pm Link to this comment

Ted Kennedy and John Kerry are about as far left as you can go in the Senate and still be a US citizen.  Obama is over there too which is why this web site so loves him.

But One Senator from Mass gets a lot of work accomplished….that’s Kennedy.  Kerry is the one that flys off to France and doesn’t like to “legislate”.  He prefers the lime lite and has done well just radicalizing his base and declaring he’s going to do something, any day.

Kerry opposed Regans handling of the Soviet Union and instead felt we should accept the elsavement of eastern Europe under them.  To hims this was enligthement.  He was terribly wrong but you won’t hear him admit it.

He was wrong about the surge and as things turn around in Iraq and the government is standing up…Kerry grows silent on Iraq.

And here he is, Mr Do-nothing, telling the presidnet of the United States how to appease and surrender to Iran.

Mr Kerry hasn’t met an enemy of the US yet that he wasn’t prepared to surrender to.

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By Ga, May 26, 2008 at 4:53 pm Link to this comment

“Take this Guy out for the Love of sweet Jesus!”

You mean, like, on a date? Looking forward to a good by kiss?

Jesus said love thy neighbor, but that is not exactly what was meant.

Oh, you mean ASSASSINATION! Like just, MURDER him? Yeah, Jesus would like that, bdog.

Sadly, moronic arguments like his prevail the USA’s leadership.

If, like so many say, America has the best values, ideals, etc., and is the home of the BRAVE, then we should talk directly to Iran and show how much COURAGE we have.

But, no, we’ll just bomb Iran like COWARDS.

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By Don Stivers, May 25, 2008 at 3:23 pm Link to this comment

Appeasement!

As far as WWII goes.  It was England that jumped into the war.  Look into history people and see where areas of Germany had been divided after WWI. Appeasement is a lot more complicated than it is being made out to be.

A great many Poles and Russians died because discussions were not performed during Germany’s march into that portion of Poland that was full of Germans.

Think about Hitler’s bluster and that of our own President.  Bush knows NOTHING about history or geography.  He is making up for his own shrinking away from his duty as an Airman when he went AWOL and now struts around with a puffed out chest behind the lives of our young men and women in the military.

We need to get along with the people who have the oil don’t you think?  They are getting rich on our money and laughing all the way to the bank.  They don’t need a big military to defeat this country.  Just patience, which this country does not have.

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By kalitos, May 25, 2008 at 9:18 am Link to this comment

Iran has grown stronger: continuing to master the nuclear fuel cycle; arming militias in Iraq and Lebanon; bolstering extremist anti-Israeli proxies. It has embraced Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and spends lavishly to rebuild Afghanistan, gaining influence across the region.

These are Cary’s words, seeming to be for peace and good; realy just further demonizing Iran.

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By Blackspeare, May 25, 2008 at 7:03 am Link to this comment

The term “appeasement” has taken on an abused meaning——essentially that talking to a perceived enemy is such.  This, of course, is wrong.  It has been used to describe Chamberlain’s talks with Hitler and then when he returned to the UK to say that, “Peace has been achieved within our time.” Talking with Hitler was not appeasement, but failure to confront him on his invasion into the Sudentenland was!

Like Theodore Roosevelt said, “Talk softly and carry a big stick” or for a more modern version, “Never negotiate out of fear, but never fear to negotiate.

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