Direct talks with Iran may facilitate, not reduce, threats to U.S. interests

"[T]he State Department recently named Dennis Ross, a seasoned Middle East negotiator, as a "special adviser" to the Gulf region -- a bureaucratic but important prerequisite for direct talks with Iran. Unfortunately, a new envoy and a new diplomatic tone cannot disguise the ongoing substantive collapse of U.S. policy and resolve in the teeth of the Islamic Republic's growing challenge."

So, there are four problems with Iran:

1. Diplomacy is not working
2. Pretending that Hamas, Hezbollah and Syriah are not really Iranian proxies is not working
3. Iraq: A free and stable Iraq threatens Iran, and Obama's policy will insure that Iraq will not be stable, and subsequently will not remain free; therefore, the Iraqi angle is not working
4. Afghanistan: See #3 above. Unstable neighbors on its borders only helps Iran. It behooves Iran to not help stabilize Afghanistan, so expect more Iraqi type insurgency there in the coming months.

Have we elected the village idiot to guide our middle east policies? Only time will tell. One thing is clear: nuclear fallout will leave a fingerprint that will be impossible to gloss over.

"The West's collective failure to stop Iran's nuclear ambitions has persuaded Iran that it faces minimal risks in greater adventurism on other fronts as well. Mr. Obama's discovery of "carrots and sticks," after a half decade of European failure to make that mantra a successful policy, will lead Tehran's mullahs to one inescapable conclusion: They have won the nuclear race, absent imminent regime change or military action."