Iran-U.S. to Hold Iraq Talks: Iran Envoy

Isn't it naive for the Bush administration to be talking to Iran? Aren't they beating Obama over the head for suggesting the same thing? Dubya and the lap dog Republicans take every opportunity to accuse Democrats of appeasement for calling for talks with all parties involved in the Iraq quagmire. Why the double standard?:

Iran, the United States and Iraq will discuss details on Monday of a security committee they agreed to set up last month to help restore security in Iraq, an Iranian official said on Saturday.

Arch foes Tehran and Washington, which cut diplomatic ties shortly after Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution, held two rounds of rare talks in Baghdad in May and July to find ways to ease Iraq's security crisis.

I would be curious to know if the Bush administration approves of the talks going on between the Afghan government and the Taliban to try and free those hostages. Since the press isn't asking the question I forced to assume the White House doesn't want anything to do with it. It would once again show the hypocrisy of this administration if it were learned that they had been supporting negotiations with the Taliban. Similarly, they also don't want to get blamed if those South Koreans are executed. Caught between a rhetoric and a hard place:

The Afghan government and Taliban kidnappers on Saturday sought a venue for negotiations to try to free 21 South Korean Christian hostages held for more than two weeks, the provincial police chief said.

Don't hold your breath. Bush realizes U.S. froces have little control over Afghanistan:

South Korea has appealed to the United States, which has more than 20,000 troops in Afghanistan, to help free the hostages. Washington has said it would do what it could, but has ruled out making concessions to those it considers terrorists.

If you want to know how little control just look at the poppy problem:

Afghanistan will produce another record poppy harvest this year that cements its status as the world's near-sole supplier of the heroin source, yet a furious debate over how to reverse the trend is stalling proposals to cut the crop, U.S. officials say.

Not only is Mr.Bush not defeating the terrorists in Afghanistan, he is presiding over a future drug crisis on the streets of America. The drug cartels must love Dubya. He's given them porous borders in the U.S. and a lucrative supply of heroin. We already know this President would rather lock up border patrol agents fighting drug trafficking than the traffickers themselves:

Afghanistan last year accounted for 92 percent of global opium production, compared with 70 percent in 2000 and 52 percent a decade earlier. The higher yields in Afghanistan brought world production to a record high of 7,286 tons in 2006, 43 percent more than in 2005.

A State Department inspector general's report released Friday noted that the counternarcotics assistance is dwarfed by the estimated $38 billion "street value" of Afghanistan's poppy crop, if all is converted to heroin, and said eradication goals were "not realistic."