Sitting Down with Iran and Syria

We must welcome the announcement that the United States will sit down at the same table with the Syrians and the Iranians at a conference called by Iraq. However, the administration is trying to make it clear that this does not signify a change in policy. Our hope is that those statements are mere window dressing, but let us not be surprised if they are true to their word.

Tony Snow began his briefing after making the announcement with a list that, he said gave "at least a glimpse of a number of occasions on which the U.S. and the Iranians had been seated at the same table in multilateral negotiations." Sitting and negotiating are not the same. A little later he added: "But this does not mean that there are going to be sidebars where we're having one-on-one talks with the Iranians. It doesn't mean that there's going to be any departure from past practice."

Iraq's Prime Minister Maliki has been asking for a conference for quite some time. The White House appears to have given in to those demands. We can hope that they are fruitful. But without the United States actively negotiating with Iraq's neighbors, any gains will be small. They cannot succeed in what we should regard as their main task: creating the conditions that will enable the United States to withdraw. (Indeed, it is time for the United States to withdraw, wholly or partially, but that's a topic for another time.)

This is particularly true if, as it seems, the Iraqi government is believed to be a government of, by, and for Shiites by the Sunnis. The dialogue within Iraq still needs to begin.

Cab Calloway and Nicholas Brothers

This is not the usual fare for this blog, but this clip is so good, it is well worth posting. Give it a look and listen.

In the movie Stormy Weather (1943)