The redoubtable Iran watcher, Michael Ledeen weighs in with his post, Appeasement Runs Wild in the West:
The seriousness of the West has been tested once again, and once again the West has chosen dishonor. Today that grand master of appeasement, Javier Solana [EU foreign policy chief], announced that Iran's proposal for broad talks has been accepted, and the State Department tells us that the talks will take place in December.
In other words, when we announced that we would give Iran until September to fish or cut bait on their nuclear program, it was a hoax. All we wanted — all the Obama administration has ever wanted — was the chance to sit down around a table with the
Tehran tyrants. If you haven't actually read the Iranian letter, you should. To say that it is unresponsive to the endless ultimata issuing forth from the "Five plus One" (meaning France, Britain, Germany, China, and Russia, plus the United States), and all the leaks promising "tough sanctions" if the Iranians didn't actually take action to stop their nuclear program, would be a colossal understatement. It's pure pablum, unworthy of a smart sixth-grader. Five and a half pages of cliches and slogans without any real content.
And yet the State Department's spokesperson, Mr. Crowley, has the gall to say that we shouldn't be concerned, because our diplomats will "assess where (our) diplomatic approach stands." Not to worry, he says, "Iran's willingness do deal with the nuclear issues in the proposed new talks will be part of that assessment."
In simple English, President Obama, Secretary Clinton, along with Messrs. Holbrooke, Mitchell, and Ross, will suck their thumbs between now and the end of the year.
Dark thought for the day: There is an acrid smell in the air, as if we had decided that the best outcome is to have the Israelis do our dirty work for us. And then we'll come down on them really hard to make them stop building apartments in Jerusalem.
You really couldn't invent this world. Not even Charles McCarry could.