Bush Feigns Diplomacy with Iran, Bush: Haditha? Huh?, Bush Lies and Iran Wants More Power.

The WaPo is calling it "perhaps the biggest foreign policy shift of his presidency". I think the WaPo is being a little naive.

We know from past experience that the Bush idea of diplomacy is, "My way or the highway." This appears to be just more of the same.

In the latest White House stunt to make it look like Bush is willing to negotiate with Iran, we have made demands that the Iranians have repeatedly stated that are unwilling to accept.

And if Iraq is any indication of Bush's phony diplomacy, even if our demands are met, it will make no difference.

By placing conditions that we know won't be agreed to, Bush can now get up and shed his crocodile tears, while he says he tried every means of diplomacy. And he'll conclude by saying that Iran brought this upon themselves.

Condi spent the day laying out the groundwork for Bush's new attempt at fooling the American people. Meanwhile all options remain open, that means the military. Transcript

Now, in perhaps the biggest foreign policy shift of his presidency, Bush has
approved the idea of sitting down at the table with the Iranian government --
one headed by a former student radical who denies the Holocaust. Attached to the
U.S. offer was a stern condition: a verified suspension of Iran's nuclear
enrichment operations. But the offer overturned a long-standing taboo, and it
came from an administration stocked with officials who have made little secret
of their desire to overthrow the government in Tehran.

The administration made this move at a moment of weakness. The president's
public opinion ratings are among the lowest ever recorded for a modern
president, and oil prices have reached record levels, in part because of the
confrontation with Iran. The high price of oil, in turn, has enriched the
Iranian treasury.

Iran responded today, agreeing to talk, but they won't give up their nuclear enrichment efforts.

Iran this morning issued a wary but apparently less than final reply to the Bush
administration's offer. "Iran welcomes dialogue under just conditions but won't
give up our rights," Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said, in remarks quoted
by Iranian state television. "We won't negotiate about the Iranian nation's
natural nuclear rights but we are prepared, within a defined, just framework and
without any discrimination, to hold dialogue about common concerns."

Bush is so busy fund raising that he is out of touch with what's happening. He hadn't even heard of Haditha until a reporter started asking him questions about it.

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush learned of reports that U.S. Marines killed two
dozen unarmed Iraqi civilians only after reporters began asking questions, the
White House said
Tuesday.
Asked when Bush was first briefed about the events in Haditha, an insurgent
stronghold in western Iraq, White House press secretary Tony Snow replied
Tuesday: ``When a Time reporter first made the call.''

In fact, Bush don't seem to know what's going on in his own cabinet. No, he was only lying again.

On May
25th, President Bush said that Treasury Secretary John Snow had not given
him any indication that he was leaving
soon:
PRESIDENT BUSH: Secretary of Treasury
Snow?
Q Has he given you any indication he intends to leave his job any time
soon?…
PRESIDENT BUSH: No, he has not talked to me about resignation. I think he’s
doing a fine job.
In fact, not only had Snow indicated he
was leaving, President Bush had already settled on his replacement. Today, Tony
Snow said that Hank Paulson was offered the job on May 20 and accepted a day
later:
QUESTION: Do you have any tick tock on the
Paulson…
SNOW: Yes. The tick tock is the two of them met on the 20th of May and there
was a conversation. And Hank Paulson accepted the job a day later. That was
subject to clearance. It does take time, especially for a Senate confirmable
position, to complete those. So it did take time to get some of those clearances
wrapped up.

And this ought to really rattle the already confused President. Iran plans to solicit bids for two more nuclear power plants.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran plans to build two 1,000 megawatt nuclear reactors and
will solicit bids within the next two months, a senior official told Reuters on
Wednesday.
The tender will be open to domestic and international
firms.
The decision to build two more nuclear plants comes amid mounting Western
pressure on the Islamic state to suspend its uranium enrichment
work.
"We want to build two nuclear power plants through an international tender,"
said Mohammad Saeedi, deputy head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation.