"Our administration is reviewing policy toward Iran," Biden declared, "but this much I can say: We are willing to talk."
Unlike whom? Obama's predecessor? The Bush administration held at least 28 separate meetings between Americans of ambassadorial rank and Iranian officials during the eight years of the Bush presidency. According to the Middle East Forum, more than 16 meetings were held in Geneva and Paris from November 2001 through December 2002 between Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ryan Crocker and senior Iranian Foreign Ministry officials. A number of high-level direct negotiations were conducted in 2003, and a number of indirect contacts were maintained through the Europeans between 2003 and 2007. In March 2007, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad held a meeting with an Iranian team at a conference of Iraq's neighbors in Baghdad. Khalilzad's successor, Crocker, also met with the Iranian ambassador. Thus the U.S. gave full backing to a (fruitless) European Union initiative to negotiate with Iran about its nuclear program.
Biden announced last week, as if there were something new under the sun, "We are willing to talk to Iran, and to offer a very clear choice: continue down your current course and there will be pressure and isolation; abandon your illicit nuclear program and support for terrorism and there will be meaningful incentives."
Ah, "meaningful incentives." Why didn't someone think of that before? Let's see, here's a CNN clip from May 8, 2008: "The United States has signed off on a European plan that would offer increased incentives for Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment program, senior State Department officials said Thursday. ... The United States, along with the other nations, has been following a 'dual track strategy' with Iran, which includes tightening sanctions on the regime while offering incentives if Iran suspends its enrichment activities." Page back through the past eight years and you can find the identical story over and over again. The U.S. and the Europeans have been perpetual Charlie Browns running to kick the football to the Iranian Lucy.
So now the Obama Administration proposes to do exactly, exactly the same thing. But they do so loudly proclaiming how different they are. And the clock ticks, and Ahmadinejad -- who affirmatively desires global chaos because he believes it portends the arrival of the 12th imam -- gets ever closer to a nuclear weapon.
