US plans to station diplomats in Iran for first time since 1979

The Guardian (UK) (excerpt) ^ | June 17, 2008 | Ewen MacAskill

[woollyone]

Send Jimmuh Cahtuh for his 400 day vacation

[tobyhill]

Every President plays this game in the last days in office knowing nothing will actually be set up till they’re long out of office or nothing will actually occur at all. There is no way Iran will allow the US on their soil in position to spy on their nuke program.

[Texas Federalist]

Bush - like Gerald Ford, only more liberal and less coherent.

[null and void]

Is this move really such a good idea and really necessary?

Maybe, and maybe yes.

I think Iran now has The Bomb. In this case diplomatic relations provides the only slim (and IMHO, futile) hope of preventing their use.

Alternate explanation: Bush recognizes that Osama Obama will win the next election, and he's setting him up for a long hostage crisis.

Goal?

In the minds of the voters

Democrats=Hostages (Carter, Obama).
Republicans=Freedom (Reagan, ???)

[null and void]

Let me be the first on this thread to call BS.

Done!

(Exactly what do you think is too stupid for the US government to do?)

[null and void]

There is no fathomable reason for State to do something as stupid as this.

For State stupid is SOP.

[Convert from ECUSA]

Sad. Very sad. I had high hopes back in January 2001. Seems like aeons ago. What the heck happened? (rhetorical question)

[matthew fuller]

"To bad we didn't have a president back then. "

Too bad we don't have one now, either.

[mkjessup]

Sad. Very sad. I had high hopes back in January 2001. Seems like aeons ago. What the heck happened? (rhetorical question)

Quite frankly, this is what happens when a presidential candidate with limited or no experience in foreign policy is elected. We saw the same pooch getting screwed when Jimmy Phuckwit Carter was in the White House, his prior job was one term as Governor of Georgia, ONE term!

Then of course there was Bill Clinton. While Clinton held the governorship of Arkansas for more than 10 years total, his foreign policy experience was based mostly on smoking dope at Oxford, "loathing the military" as he put it, and joining up with the typical bearded America-haters that seemed to be every-dam-where back then. Clinton's Administration has been described as a 'vacation from history' and that is exactly what it was. Clinton treated the issue of terrorism as a law enforcement issue, which is why our refusal to respond properly to the first WTC bombing in '93 emboldened al Qaeda to try, try again. Ditto for Somalia.

The fact is, George W. Bush was only marginally prepared to deal with the foreign policy demands that quickly caught up to him after being elected. He did indeed rise to the occasion post 9/11, but with the collapse of what was once a muscular "don't mess with us, we're comin' after you" foreign policy, we can now clearly see that the second term of George W. Bush was pretty much doomed from the beginning.

Obama-lama-ding-dong comes to this election cycle with the least amount of experience of any candidate in the 20th century. His foreign policy expertise is nothing but wishful thinking and egghead pontificating, God help us if he should somehow make it to the Oval Office.

[hershey]

Is this before or after we/Israel obliterate their nuclear sites? Either way, it doesn’t seem like the welcome wagon would come calling anytime soon.

[RightWhale]

Let me be the first on this thread to call BS.

USA requested a small office, not an embassy, and Iran responded with an offer of a bigger office. It's been in the works for months.

[ought-six]

“There is no fathomable reason for State to do something as stupid as this.”

State is fully capable of such stupidity. It is its stock in trade.

[ought-six]

“There is no way Iran will allow the US on their soil in position to spy on their nuke program.”

Are you kidding? Opening a United States Interest Section in Iran would be a major coup for Iran. They’d see it as victory over the Great Satan, as they’ll see it as the Great Satan wanting to kiss Iran’s muzzie ass. And, to a muzz, getting someone — especially an infidel — to kiss their ass is the greatest ego trip and the sweetest victory.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Bush's spine must be owned by his dad. From China to N. Korea to Iran, so-called elites continue appeasement spree to protect their financial holdings from going under.

They won't be doing anything substantial to remove NK or Iran's nuke. I seriously doubt that Iran would cave as Libya did. Bush did not exactly display the resolve that he can go all the way if Iran does not cave. Then why should Iran give up its nuke program after pouring in so much money and political capital?

[Convert from ECUSA]

Ain’t it the truth, mkjessup, ain’t it the truth!