“If you want to make peace, you don’t talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies. “

As I read the speech (and I read it all), he said nothing there that is inconsistent with US foreign policy for the last twenty-five years.

I would be interested in seeing the commenters who believe W made a heinous statement quote it and tell us all where it differs from US Foreign policy from 1992-2000.

American Heritage Dictionary
appeasement …
2. The policy of granting concessions to potential enemies to maintain peace.

I think the dictionary definition serves us well here, Bill. The question isn’t that we shouldn’t talk to Iran and Syria - we eventually will. The question is what “concessions” we are willing to grant in order to maintain the peace. I bring up Lebanon as a perfect example. Unless the ground work is laid extraordinarily carefully a la China in ‘72, we may find ourselves in a diplomatic trap - pressured by our own process to make a deal and thus giving away something vital.

Happened with Russia a couple of times - namely, when we gave up a huge MIRV advantage for, in the end, nothing.

Bargaining with enemies is not about making them like us. It’s about avoiding misunderstandings that lead to war. I am not convinced entirely - although there are surely some elements in Iran who are rational - that we are dealing with a normal state when talking about Iran. The insularity of that crowd is incredible. It’s why the don’t believe the holocaust happened and all these cockamamie conspiracy theories.

No foe we’ve ever encountered has shown this level of ignorance about the outside world. That makes them incredibly dangerous as well as almost impossible to talk to.

This is not just a question of talking or not talking. It is a question of attitude - a question raised by Bush that has the Democrats screaming bloody murder because they recognize their attitude in those words. Both Obama and the Democrats overreacted to Bush’s criticism. But it was a telling overreaction, don’t you think?

ed.

And “far left”?? Disregarding the fact that from the POV of most of the developed world, the American “left” is center-right, at what percentile of the American political spectrum would you place the cutoff for “far left”?
Bear in mind that many on the left would place BObama at about 60-70th percentile, with his instincts for compromise driving his actual policy even closer to the center. (The “most liberal Senator” tag is just B.S., a cunningly-designed statistical artifact that was also trotted out for John Kerry.)

It’s a riot to see “the dumbest President ever” make the bed wetting lefties and their Messiah look like total fools.

Bullseye W

But you are very typical of the far left. Intellectual discourse is impossible, because you hear only what you want to hear. Your arguments are made without evidence (e.g. “sending tax dollars to Bush cronies”, “anti-catholic”, “war based on lies”, etc.)

I can’t keep arguing with idiots (sorry for the ad hominem), I actually have a job.

House Democrats, defying President Bush’s threat of a veto, will offer a supplemental appropriation …

Heh. I don’t think there’s a hole deep enough that he can crawl into to hide.

ed.