U.S., Iran talk about Iraq

Wait a minute. How can this be?

American and Iranian officials spoke briefly Friday at a regional conference here on the Iraq situation, in a rare direct conversation between representatives of the two antagonistic nations.

Ryan Crocker, the United States ambassador to Iraq, said that he and David Satterfield, the senior adviser on Iraq to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, had an impromptu three-minute discussion with an Iranian deputy foreign minister. Rice and Iran's foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, did not participate.

Crocker would not say what was discussed, except that the conversation was limited to the situation in Iraq.

I thought we didn't talk to evil. Is Iran not evil anymore, or has the Bush administration decided there is some benefit in communicating with our adversaries?

I hope nobody tells Dick Cheney about this. Somebody could get shot in the face.