Like a slow learner, the Bush Assministration is absorbing the lessons of its exclusionary approach to the Middle East, and is moving toward talks with Iran next month. Perhaps the child king has been convinced that stonewalling Iraq's neighbors is frustrating his failed war "strategery." More likely, the neighbors in the region that we talk to - Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, etc. - have sent the Presidunce the message that it's long past time to engage with the regimes in Iran and Syria, despite the off-stage urgings of the neocon "braintrust" to stiff them.
The Baker-Hamilton study group's recommendations had been shelved for months, since the child king was unwilling to admit his plan was going nowhere fast, and that he needed help from his daddy's advisors. Now, in desperation, he's grasping for something - anything - that might hold promise for a face saving "cut and run."
