Former CIA Deputy: "Even Superpowers Have To Talk To Bad Guys."

[JABBS]

"(E)ven superpowers have to talk to bad guys. The absence of a diplomatic relationship with Iran and the deterioration of the one with Syria -- two countries that bear enormous responsibility for the current crisis -- leave the United States with fewer options and levers than might otherwise have been the case."

That's part of the message delivered in today's Washington Post editorial page by John McLaughlin, CIA deputy director from 2000 to 2004. McLaughin seems to understand that you can't parachute into obstacle courses like the Middle East. Tough talk may lead to applause lines at home, but they don't make a difference when the audience is a state sponsor of terrorism, let alone the terrorist groups themselves.

<snip>

"Distasteful as it might have been to have or to maintain open and normal relations with such states, the absence of such relations ensures that we will have more blind spots than we can afford and that we will have to deal through surrogates on issues of vital importance to the United States," he writes. "We will have to get over the notion that talking to bad guys somehow rewards them or is a sign of weakness. As a superpower, we ought to be able to communicate in a way that signals our strength and self-confidence."

For more, click here.

[SensibleAmerican]

1. I don't think you have to talk in order to avoid war

We didn't have a relationship with Iran or Cuba throughout the Clinton administration, and guess what, there was no war.

[JABBS]

2. but we did have

Warren Christopher dealing directly with Syria on Hezbollah, in 1996.

Cuba? Whole other can of worms ...