Posted on 08/19/2005 10:11:25 AM PDT by F14 Pilot
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican Party foreign policy expert Sen. Chuck Hagel is calling for the United States to open talks with Iran's new president and has dismissed President George W. Bush's talk of a military option against Tehran as an empty and foolish threat.
In an interview with Reuters during a trip across his home state on Wednesday, Hagel said the United States should greet the new Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with a bold diplomatic stroke.
"You've got a new president, a new opportunity to do something bold here. Why not take that opportunity and do something bold? Iran is going to be a major influence in the future of Iraq. It already is. Who are we kidding when we think that they're not? They are.
"I would start engaging with American face-to-face dialogue. We're not at negotiations yet, but opening that dialogue. This is a process. This needs to work. Every side has to give something here," said Hagel, who is a member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee and is seen as a possible Republican presidential candidate in 2008.
In an interview with Israeli television last week, Bush said "all options are on the table" if the Iranians refuse to comply with international demands to halt their nuclear program, and noted that he has already used force to protect U.S. security.
EMPTY THREAT
Hagel's response to that implied threat was completely dismissive.
"Quite frankly, what is the military option, what are we talking about here? We lose credibility in the face of the world when we say things like, 'Well just don't forget what happened to Iraq could happen to you Iran. We could invade you, we could bomb you.'
"Oh come on now. First of all, where are we going to get the troops? Who's going to go with us? Where are our partners going to be with Iran?"
The United States has been working through its allies, France, Britain and Germany, in an effort to persuade the Iranians to freeze their nuclear program. This week, the Iranians resumed operations at their uranium conversion facility at Isfahan.
Hagel, who has also been highly critical of the Bush administration's Iraq policy and would like to see Washington end its embargo of Cuba, said the current policy of working through surrogates made no sense.
"I don't understand how we think we're going to make progress by staying on the outside using surrogates, our allies France, Britain and Germany, to go to the table and work with them while stand back and don't want to get our hands dirty," he said.
"You need to move toward something and what are we moving toward here? I don't see where we're moving toward anything. In fact, I think we're eroding a base of strength that we still have here. We have got to get inside this thing, because this is a very dangerous problem," Hagel said. "I think we're actually losing altitude, I think we're actually making it more dangerous."
Senator Chuck Hagel calls for talks with terrorists!
PING PING!
I assume this Pol is ignoring the recent pronouncements of Iran that they don't want any negotiations or dialogue with us, but intead only with the nations of the EU?
"Quite frankly, what is the military option, what are we talking about here? We lose credibility in the face of the world when we say things like, 'Well just don't forget what happened to Iraq could happen to you Iran. We could invade you, we could bomb you.'
Quite frankly, I must have forgotten when Hagel was elected to be POTUS.
I cannot stop laughing...
That opening description of Hagel cracks me up. Like Senator isn't enough for Reuters, they want to really, really make him look smarter then Bush.
Apparently, Hagel didn't get McCain's memo --- John agrees with POTUS.
RINO alert!
Hagel must have had his head up Kerry's butt. Or has been asleep for the past year. Out binge drinking with Teddy perhaps...
Write this Rhino! Maybe he can be clued in.
Ah, Hagel proving he is intellectually vapid.
"..Every side has to give something here," said Hagel"
What part of "We Will Not Rest Until Every Christian and Jew is Dead" don't the American/Liberals and Hagel's get? They do not "give" on anything!!
I think we should talk to Iran also. The conversation would go something like this: "You have 72 hours to cut off those terrorists in Iraq you're supporting."
That is the only language pattern they may understand
This fellow is such a loose cannon. How did the fine people of Nebraska come up with him?
Did Chuck Hagel fall and hit his head any time in the last year or so? It seems like he's really gone bonkers!
Sen. Hagel, a foreign policy expert?! The only thing Hagel is an expert at is putting his foot squarely in his mouth. Hagel is a niave fool apparently if he thinks we are at the stage to negotiate face to face with Iran. He apparently hasn't looked at the lists of nations that sponsor terror in the last 25 years. Iran has long been on the top of these lists. So much for his expertise. And you can never take the military option off the table.
.... I'm guessing Hagel's proposing surrender negotiations?
Hagel spent most of his time in Virginia before becoming our Senator in 1996. Presumably he was busy not only running a telecommunications company, but also greasing the wheels of his connections in the beltway. I regret ever casting a vote for the man and have been one of his harshest critics in the statewide media here in Nebraska.
Damn he's an idiot.
Let him know.
http://hagel.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Offices.Contact
"Foreign policy expert" = Agrees with the MSM editorial pages on foreign policy
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