John Bolton’s article today in the Wall Street Journal questions Obama’s unwillingness to have pre-conditions on talks with terror sponsor/funding/supporting states like Iran. He states how most rational individuals are 99%ers (like McCain/Bush) who wish for political diplomacy 99% of the time, but would obviously not be so naive to say that negotiations will take place, no matter what, 100% of the time. A policy that Obama is foolishly standing behind this far into his campaign.

Wall Street Journal

At first glance, the idea of sitting down with adversaries seems hard to quarrel with. In our daily lives, we meet with competitors, opponents and unpleasant people all the time. Mr. Obama hopes to characterize the debate about international negotiations as one between his reasonableness and the hard-line attitude of a group of unilateralist GOP cowboys.

The real debate is radically different. On one side are those who believe that negotiations should be used to resolve international disputes 99% of the time. That is where I am, and where I think Mr. McCain is. On the other side are those like Mr. Obama, who apparently want to use negotiations 100% of the time. It is the 100%-ers who suffer from an obsession that is naïve and dangerous.

Negotiation is not a policy. It is a technique. Saying that one favors negotiation with, say, Iran, has no more intellectual content than saying one favors using a spoon. For what? Under what circumstances? With what objectives? On these specifics, Mr. Obama has been consistently sketchy.

Exit question: What “policy” is there to discuss when the enemy is killing American troops? What “talks” need to happen if the enemy is already involved in military engagement inside another country?

Sometimes I feel like Obama just completely ignores the assessment of Ambassador Crocker and General Patraeus…either that or he doesn’t care what they say and will push forth his political agenda regardless of the opinion of his military General.

Memo to Obama: American troops are dying at the hands of Iranian revolutionary guard forces through the funding of the Mahdi insurgency and proven, factual direct involvement in training and operations of Iraqi insurgent groups…

Will someone please force Obama to address this?

*update* John McCain comments again today on Obama’s foreign policy as reckless…