squashed:

I have two questions. First, why does Bush think it’s a good idea to lump Iran and Al Qaeda into the same group? Secondly, (and this is a serious question for anybody who disagrees with me), how would an unpreconditioned meeting with Iranian leaders be bad idea? It doesn’t have to be a full state visit with all the pomp—but why not have some people with authority to talk with eachother get together in Egypt or somewhere? Iran is no more eager to give up its nuclear program than we are to give up ours—so why are we refusing to discuss issues that we could make some headway on until they do something we already know they’re not going to do?

I believe the U.S. should not meet with the Iranians because it would legitimize and lend respect to a crazed regime unworthy of respect or direct communication. Author and student of Middle Eastern politics Joel Rosenberg describes best why Iran cannot be deterred or reasoned with:

No one who truly understands Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s eschatology — or end times theology — could honestly believe that Ahmadinejad can be deterred. Ahmadinejad believes it is his God-given mission to annihilate the U.S., Israel and Judeo-Christian civilization as we know. To what end? To create the conditions that will bring the Islamic Messiah known as the Mahdi or the “12th Imam” to earth. Ahmadinejad is not just another power-hungry dictator in the mold of the Soviet or Chinese leaders of yore. He is a Shia Islamic fascist. He believes his life destiny is to kill millions of Jews and Christians and usher in an Islamic caliphate. He believes he is a John-the-Baptist, a forerunner, of the Islamic Messiah. If he dies, he believes he will spend eternity in paradise with 72 virgins. But he doesn’t really believe he’s going to die. He believes he has been chosen for a divine appointment, and that nothing can stop him. That is what makes him so dangerous. Unfortunately, too many Washington politicians — Sens. Clinton and Obama included — do not understand this.

I’m unsure if McCain explicitly understands this either, but at least he’s willing to unequivocally condemn terrorist’s jihad against us as a “transcendent evil.”