Rice Says U.S. Would Consider Meeting Iran

Secretary of State Rice has emerged as the chief architect of American foreign policy since the last election. She seems to be hopelessly out of her depth dealing with Islam and Islamic nations and has articulated no clear strategy for dealing with them in over a year as Secretary of State. From AP:

MELBOURNE, Australia — Talks between American and Iranian diplomats on stabilizing Iraq "might be useful," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday, but she gave no timeline for any contact and ruled out discussion of Tehran's disputed nuclear program.

Iran has offered to begin talks with the United States aimed at stabilizing Iraq, even as Washington maneuvers to confront Iran's nuclear ambitions in the powerful U.N. Security Council...

On Thursday, Iran's top nuclear negotiator and secretary of the country's Supreme National Security Council, said Tehran was ready to open direct talks with the United States over Iraq, marking a major shift in Iranian foreign policy.

Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, is authorized to talk with Iran about Iraq, much as the United States has talked with Iran about issues relating to Afghanistan...

Rice later flew to Melbourne, Australia's second-largest city, to thank Australian troops who served alongside U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and to attend the quadrennial Commonwealth Games.

"In liberating Iraq from that horrible dictator and liberating the neighborhood from that terrible threat, you, the Australian armed forces, and the American armed forces ... gave the Iraqi people a chance," Rice told a group of about 100 Australian Army and Navy forces.

Vague language, such as "gave the Iraqi people a chance" is good for diplomats, but bad for formulating a coherent foreign policy those diplomats should follow. Meanwhile back in Iraq, the US military is helping the Shia defeat the Sunnis, who are now labeled "insurgents." Another vague term to add to "war on terror," and "long war." Fuzzy language leads to fuzzy thinking and both make for a incoherent foreign policy.

In a well-publicized show of force, U.S. and Iraqi forces swept into the countryside north of the capital Baghdad on Thursday, looking for insurgents in what the American military called its "largest air assault" in nearly three years...

Posted by Rebecca at March 17, 2006 7:12 AM
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