THE AUDACITY OF NAÏVETÉ WITH IRAN

"Senator Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. wants to talk to our Middle Eastern enemies, notably Iran. He can't imagine a happy resolution of the war without such talks. And he seems to think this desire is something new, maybe even revolutionary.

He apparently does not know that it is not at all new, and certainly not revolutionary. It is instead the fully tested "policy" of the United States for the past thirty years, ever since the seizure of power by the mullahs in 1979.

We have had high-level and low-level talks, public and private talks, talks conducted by diplomats, by spooks, and by a colorful array of intermediaries. All failed. We tried everything. The Iranians were not interested. It reminds me of that great scene from Goldfinger, with Sean Connery as James Bond spread-eagled on a sheet of gold, and a laser beam slicing through it, headed for his private parts.

"Do you expect me talk, Goldfinger?" he asks.

"No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die."

That's Iran. The mullahs want us to die. Mr. Obama won't allow himself to understand this. Perhaps his book should have been entitled The Audacity of Naïveté."

-- Michael Ledeen