Bush's Iran Plan Echoes Kerry, Baffles Friends

http://www.nysun.com/article/26606

January 27, 2006 Edition > Section: National > Printer-Friendly Version

Bush's Iran Plan Echoes Kerry, Baffles Friends
BY JOSH GERSTEIN - Staff Reporter of the Sun
January 27, 2006
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/26606

President Bush's endorsement of a plan to end the nuclear standoff with Iran by giving the Islamic republic nuclear fuel for civilian use under close monitoring has left some of his supporters baffled.

One cause for the chagrin is that the proposal, which is backed by Russia, essentially adopts a strategy advocated by Mr. Bush's Democratic opponent in the 2004 election, Senator Kerry of Massachusetts.<snip>

<snip>However, Secretary of State Rice, who was national security adviser at the time, dismissed efforts to cut a deal with the Iranians. "This regime has to be isolated in its bad behavior, not quote-unquote 'engaged,'" she said in an August 2004 interview with Fox News.

The administration's reticence about Mr. Kerry's plan was not shared by Republican commentators, who accused the senator of favoring "appeasement" and warned that the Iranians could divert nuclear fuel to make bombs.

A Pentagon official under President Reagan, Frank Gaffney Jr., skewered the plan in a column entitled, "Kerry's Nuclear Nonsense." Mr. Gaffney, who did not return a call seeking comment for this story, declared, "Mr. Bush understands the folly of going that route."<snip>

and they joined in viciously and treated Kerry as if he hadn't a clue.

Guess what media? There isn't anyone who knows more than Kerry on how to deal with nuclear proliferation and expose and subvert terrorism and cut off its funding and its social sources. But, the media won't open that book. Nope. Must protect the Bushboy at all costs.

:-(