Shake the Mullah’s Hand. Ignore the Blood.

The more I see about Robert Gates, the more concerned I grow. The Waashington Wire, a blog from the Wall Street Journal has this little tidbit about the SefDef nominee.

In the summer of 2004, Gates and former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski co-chaired a task force sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations that argued for opening a dialogue with Iran. The task force’s report contended that the lack of American engagement with Iran had harmed American interests, and advocated direct talks with the Iranians. “Just as the United States has a constructive relationship with China (and earlier did so with the Soviet Union) while strongly opposing certain aspects of its internal and international policies, Washington should approach Iran with a readiness to explore areas of common interests while continuing to contest objectionable policy,” said the report, entitled “Iran: Time for a New Approach.”

Here’s my question: what interests do we have in common with the Mad Mullahs?

Just recently, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, the guy who for all intents and purposes runs Iran, gave another public speech in which he outlined what he sees as threats. Here are a couple quotes.

The international bullying gangs, which developed the military apparatus of NATO to have hegemony over nations, are now determined to make NATO’s cultural apparatus annihilate the national identity of human communities and achieve their goals.

Now you and I know, I hope, that the one thing NATO has never done is to “Have hegemony” over anyone. Moreover, NATO hasn’t annihilated anything at any time.

Even the most robust NATO response to anything in my lifetime – the mission in Kosovo – was a pretty weak affair. Today, we still have troops there and if there’s any annihilating going on, hasn’t happened yet.

So where do we find common interests with a man who honestly believes, despite decades of evidence to the contrary, that NATO is some hegemonic tool of the West? Where do we find the repproachment wish a man who works a little bit every day toward being able to kill every last Jew on earth?

How can we look at a man like that and say, “Yeah. I can work with him”?

It really does look as if Gates is one of those “talk at all costs” types that brought us the destruction of 9/11 and more US-backed tyrants than we can shake a stick at. Instead of being ashamed of our past accomodations of the brutal and despotic and resolving not to bargain with devils, it surely does look like we’re going back to the days of glad-handing them while ignoring the blood dripping from their palms.

But at least we’ll be safe in our warm little beds. Mostly.

So, hooray for us.

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Category: Our Foreign Policy, Political Pontifications