Hagel continues to urge diplomacy with Iran

A few weeks ago, Steve Clemons revealed that Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) had urged President Bush in a private letter to engage Iran in direct, unconditional diplomacy over its nuclear program.

Clemons had obtained a copy of the letter, which read in part:

An approach such as this would strengthen our ability across the board to deal with Iran. Our friends and allies would be more confident to stand with us if we seek to increase pressure, including tougher sanctions on Iran. It could create a historic new dynamic in US-Iran relations, in part forcing the Iranians to react to the possibility of better relations with the West. We should be prepared that any dialogue process with Iran will take time, and we should continue all efforts, as you have, to engage Iran from a position of strength.

We should not wait to consider the option of bilateral talks until all other diplomatic options are exhausted. At that point, it could well be too late.

Now, Hagel is going public with his appeal for bilateral talks, and (not very subtly) mocking Bush's approach so far.

[Via ThinkProgress]

CNN: Senator, do you think that the U.S. can talk Iran out of getting a nuclear weapon, especially if they’re as close as to getting one as [former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton] contends?

HAGEL: Well, our current strategy has been working so well, don’t you think?

The fact is, the Middle East and the world is more combustible, more complicated, more dangerous today than it has ever been, and it’s mainly because somehow we’ve gotten it in our minds that great powers don’t engage. Somehow, diplomacy doesn’t include talking to people.

As I did earlier, I commend Hagel for his courage in characterizing the president's strategy for what it is: foolishness.

But as I did then, I must also point out the main flaw in Hagel's reasoning. He appears to assume that Bush's goal is to avoid war with Iran. All the available evidence indicates that Bush's goal is war with Iran.

Be that as it may, it is encouraging to hear someone arguing passionately for diplomacy, rather than for pre-emptive nuclear war. It is tragic that in today's political environment, one can stand out simply by being sane.

Hagel urges *gasp* DIPLOMACY with Iran

Sen. Chuck Hagel had better have his big-boy boxers on, and they had better be fire-retardant, at that.

Steve Clemons, of the Washington Note, has come upon a private letter from Hagel to President Bush urging the president to pursue "direct, unconditional, and comprehensive talks with the Government of Iran."

In the letter, both attached (Hagel letter pdf) and reprinted in full below, Hagel warns that "unless there is a strategic shift [from the current situation], I believe we will find ourselves in a dangerous and increasingly isolated position in the coming months." Hagel continues, "I do not see how the collective actions that we are now taking will produce the results that we seek."

Senator Hagel encourages President Bush to take the bold strategic step of offering a completely different course for US-Iran relations. He writes about direct unconditional talks:

An approach such as this would strengthen our ability across the board to deal with Iran. Our friends and allies would be more confident to stand with us if we seek to increase pressure, including tougher sanctions on Iran. It could create a historic new dynamic in US-Iran relations, in part forcing the Iranians to react to the possibility of better relations with the West. We should be prepared that any dialogue process with Iran will take time, and we should continue all efforts, as you have, to engage Iran from a position of strength.

We should not wait to consider the option of bilateral talks until all other diplomatic options are exhausted. At that point, it could well be too late.
This letter is a call for serious, level-headed rationality from one of the Senate's most stalwart "classic conservatives."

I have since learned that the letter somehow made its way to US Central Command Commander William Fallon, perhaps through Defense Secretary Gates or other avenues, and Fallon allegedly communicated with the Senator that serious articulations of American interests and consideration of the options Hagel recommends are much needed in this current political and policy environment.

The fire-breathing hordes of the right-blogosphere certainly will not brook such insolence. Hagel is about to be treated to the Full Swift-Boat (insinuations of communism, homosexuality, and pedophilia included at no extra charge). I hope he's ready.

In the meantime, let me just say how refreshing I find this display of... what to call it... SANITY from a Republican member of congress. Imagine a card-carrying member of the GOP arguing in favor of diplomacy, as opposed to pre-emptive nuclear war. I had actually forgotten what that looked like.

The only fault I find with the letter is the degree of naivete with which Hagel seems to regard Bush's intentions toward Iran.

Unless there is a strategic shift, I believe we will find ourselves in a dangerous and increasingly isolated position in the coming months. I do not see how the collective actions that we are now taking will produce the results that we seek.

With all due respect to Sen. Hagel, the failure of diplomacy and the initiation of hostilities toward Iran are the results Bush seeks.

Despite that quibble, however, and on behalf of every man woman and child on earth, I thank Sen. Hagel for attempting to inject a measure of rationality into the Bush administration's bloodstream.

As Clemons concludes:

This is a letter benchmarking the views of one of the most grounded, foreign policy savvy, common sense thinkers about the eroding state of America's military and national security portfolio. And he's a Midwestern American Republican who served in the United States Military.

Let's just hope it does some good.

Veto this

The U.S. senate voted by an overwhelming, veto-proof majority to revoke the Bush administration's authority to bypass the congress for approval of United States Attorneys.

Democrats say the Bush administration abused that authority when it fired the eight prosecutors and proposed replacing some with White House loyalists.

"If you politicize the prosecutors, you politicize everybody in the whole chain of law enforcement," said Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.

The bill, which has yet to be considered in the House, would set a 120-day deadline for the administration to appoint an interim prosecutor. If the interim appointment is not confirmed by the Senate in that time, a permanent replacement would be named by a federal district judge.

Essentially, the Senate returned the law regarding the appointments of U.S. attorneys to where it was before Congress passed the Patriot Act, including the unilateral appointment authority the administration had sought in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks.

Kit Bond, R-MO and Chuck Hagel, R-NE voted against the measure.