Bush's Wacky Gunboat Diplomacy With Iran

Only days before a scheduled meeting with Iran, the U.S. is engaging in a pattern of autodestructive conduct that may prevent the meeting from ever taking place. A large scale, and unscheduled military fleet has been holding war games in the Persian Gulf region. And renewed calls for Iran to suspend their nuclear program have been loudly stated by Washington as well as the UN.

If the U.S. wants talks with Iran, then talk. But why sign on to such talks, and then provoke just enough tensions to hope to derail the talks? If the Bush administration felt pressure to talk to Iran, and is looking for a way out, then why play such games?

This is just the type of juvenile foreign policy the U.S. has had since the Bush White House took power. This White House will only bend to public pressure when a huge outcry takes place, but then will look for ways to derail the process or create false reasons to justify doing just the wrong things.

Certainly the Iranian nuclear program represents dangers for the Mideast and perhaps even the U.S. in the long run. But the U.S. avoided an all-out war with the Soviets by maintaining some sort of open dialogue and treaties with each other. Since the 1979 Iranian Revolution, there has been no real dialogue with Iran, just mutual frictions between the two nations. Nothing can be resolved with no dialogue at all. Talks are an important link even among adversary nations.

Avoiding a shooting war with Iran is very important as well as ending their nuclear weapons program. But the current Bush policy is not getting there.