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Dear Mr. Bush --
Well, Iran announced today that it's releasing the British sailors you so endearingly called "hostages." Amazingly, the British and Iranians were able to come to a solution without firing a single cruise missile. We know that startles you.
It's amazing what diplomacy can accomplish when you're willing to actually talk to the other side. Now, given your demonstrated facility with the English language, we can understand your reticence to use words rather than bullets to settle problems, but y'know, you're not required to do the talking yourself and we're certain that there are people in your cabinet who can actually string words together into genuine sentences. You ought to use them.
Think what you might have accomplished in your administration if you'd been willing to engage in genuine negotiations with all those countries you called an "Axis of Evil"? I mean, the reports are saying that the British got Syria involved, and that Syria was instrumental in acting as a go-between with Iran. Syria: you know, that country you just blasted Nancy Pelosi for visiting, the one you refuse to have any relationship with at all because they're "supporters of terrorism."
Gosh, what might have happened if you'd picked up where the Clinton administration left off with North Korea. But no, you wouldn't talk to them, and you're just now approaching where we were with them six or seven years ago. Think of what you might have done in the Middle East if you'd actually talked to Syria, or Palestine, or... well, name your country. I mean, we wouldn't even have had to go into Iraq, because all that exhausting talking and negotiation they were doing with the United Nations had garnered results -- there were no WMDs there. Why, even now we could sit down with the Sunni insurgents in Iraq, with the Shia militias, and see if we could get somewhere that way rather than relying on your "surge" -- which is just more bullets and bodies...
Talking. Not your forte, we know. It's not the "cowboy" way. It's not the way of the fundamentalist, who believes that they're right and everyone else is just plain wrong, and so there's no reason to even listen to them, that in fact listening is dangerous because they might lead you astray. Heck, you won't even listen to your own people, the majority of whom are telling you that they no longer trust you at all.
You could take the British/Iran settlement as a lesson and drastically alter the course of what's left of the shambles of your administration. But you won't, will you?
What a shame.
Well, Iran announced today that it's releasing the British sailors you so endearingly called "hostages." Amazingly, the British and Iranians were able to come to a solution without firing a single cruise missile. We know that startles you.
It's amazing what diplomacy can accomplish when you're willing to actually talk to the other side. Now, given your demonstrated facility with the English language, we can understand your reticence to use words rather than bullets to settle problems, but y'know, you're not required to do the talking yourself and we're certain that there are people in your cabinet who can actually string words together into genuine sentences. You ought to use them.
Think what you might have accomplished in your administration if you'd been willing to engage in genuine negotiations with all those countries you called an "Axis of Evil"? I mean, the reports are saying that the British got Syria involved, and that Syria was instrumental in acting as a go-between with Iran. Syria: you know, that country you just blasted Nancy Pelosi for visiting, the one you refuse to have any relationship with at all because they're "supporters of terrorism."
Gosh, what might have happened if you'd picked up where the Clinton administration left off with North Korea. But no, you wouldn't talk to them, and you're just now approaching where we were with them six or seven years ago. Think of what you might have done in the Middle East if you'd actually talked to Syria, or Palestine, or... well, name your country. I mean, we wouldn't even have had to go into Iraq, because all that exhausting talking and negotiation they were doing with the United Nations had garnered results -- there were no WMDs there. Why, even now we could sit down with the Sunni insurgents in Iraq, with the Shia militias, and see if we could get somewhere that way rather than relying on your "surge" -- which is just more bullets and bodies...
Talking. Not your forte, we know. It's not the "cowboy" way. It's not the way of the fundamentalist, who believes that they're right and everyone else is just plain wrong, and so there's no reason to even listen to them, that in fact listening is dangerous because they might lead you astray. Heck, you won't even listen to your own people, the majority of whom are telling you that they no longer trust you at all.
You could take the British/Iran settlement as a lesson and drastically alter the course of what's left of the shambles of your administration. But you won't, will you?
What a shame.
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So, really, he's worse than Bush, Cheney, and Rove. He just has much less power to actualize his intentions. That said, in this instance he played the diplomatic game much more intelligently and successfully than our fubar US administration.
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Not to mention they also have a weird sense of reality. Look at the way Cheney gets all weird whenever anyone reminds him his daughter is gay. There's something seriously wrong about that.
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But Holocaust-denier trumps a whole lot. And It's indicative of other reality issues. I'd be very, very scared to see Ahmadinejad in a position of power equal to that of Bush and Cheney.
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It was almost certainly Khamanei that decided when to release the prisoners.
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My point is simply that just because you have ethical disagreements with a country, you don't close off relations with them -- not if you ever wish to deal with them without resorting to bloodshed. Diplomacy and words can be powerful tools. Diplomacy doesn't always work, but with our current administration's refusal to even talk, we're left with no options but aggression in one form or another.
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Absolutely, though the best definition of "diplomacy" I ever came across was from Will Rogers: "Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find a rock."
with our current administration's refusal to even talk, we're left with no options but aggression in one form or another.
Yeah, pretty sad, really. And it will leave a legacy the US will have live with for years, likely decades.
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I don't see Iran's leadership (which is mostly Ayatollah Khamanei, after all) as superior to ours at all... except that they're at least somewhat open to diplomatic solutions.