Dr. Kissinger Parses Dr. Kissinger

A debater's trick: answering a charge that was not leveled.

But I do not believe that we can make conditions for the opening of negotiations. We ought, however, to be very clear about the content of negotiations and work it out with other countries and with our own government.

That was Dr. Henry Kissinger, interviewed by CNN special correspondent Frank Sesno on the 20th of September.

Dr. Kissinger was referring to negotiations with Iran

Senso asks: negotiation "put at a very high level right out of the box?"

Kissinger:

Initially, yes. And I always believed that the best way to begin a negotiation is to tell the other side exactly what you have in mind and what you are -- what the outcome is that you're trying to achieve so that they have something that they can react to. Now, the permanent members of the Security Council, plus Japan and Germany, have all said nuclear weapons in Iran are unacceptable. They've never explained what they mean by this. So if we go into a negotiation, we ought to have a clear understanding of what is it we're trying to prevent. What is it going to do if we can't achieve what we're talking about?

Last night, Sen. Barack Obama asserted that Kissinger endorsed talks with Iran without preconditions. Mr. Obama did not say that Kissinger hoped to begin those talks at a particular level -- although Kissinger, as you can see above, had specified one.

Senator McCain mentioned Henry Kissinger, who's one of his advisers, who, along with five recent secretaries of state, just said that we should meet with Iran -- guess what -- without precondition. This is one of your own advisers.

Now, understand what this means "without preconditions." It doesn't mean that you invite them over for tea one day. What it means is that we don't do what we've been doing, which is to say, "Until you agree to do exactly what we say, we won't have direct contacts with you."

There's a difference between preconditions and preparation. Of course we've got to do preparations, starting with low-level diplomatic talks, and it may not work, because Iran is a rogue regime.

Kissinger responded last night to an assertion that Obama had not made:

"Senator McCain is right. I would not recommend the next President of the United States engage in talks with Iran at the Presidential level. My views on this issue are entirely compatible with the views of my friend Senator John McCain. We do not agree on everything, but we do agree that any negotiations with Iran must be geared to reality."

If Kissinger's views on Iran are "entirely compatible" with John McCain's -- an indirect invocation of the transitive principle -- and if Kissinger's September 20th interview with Frank Sesno accurately renders his views, then it seems as if there is very little daylight between Barack Obama and John McCain on how and when to negotiate with Iran.

After twice saying that he would meet with the leaders of rogue countries without preconditions, Obama a year ago took a step back and insisted on "preparation" and on beginning diplomacy below the level of the principles before the presidents could meet. 

The only difference appears to be that McCain would insist that Iran do certain things before diplomacy commences, while Kissinger  and Obama would NOT insist on any concessions.