Summary: Here's what I thought you'd like to hear about today: Should we Talk to Iran? - Using North Korea as a Case StudyDefining Torture Down - When discomfort and fear is confused with tortureGood news on Iraq - How the media hides itPicking the Poster Children - Misplaying the Absolute Moral Authority Card Download Subscribe Add Wizbang Podcast to iTunes Should we Talk to Iran? - Using North Korea as a Case Study Many amateur pundits have been calling for the Bush Administration to open bilateral dialog with Iran. The idea is that you need to talk to your enemies even more than your allies. Jimmy Carter the other day said as much. Here is is on WBZ radio with Ed Walsh talking about talking to Iran. Thanks to OpinionJournal.com's Best of the Web for the link. Play clip. This is rich. During the Iranian hostage crisis, the Iranian government held our diplomats for over a year against their will in our diplomatic embassy. Some success for diplomacy. As James Tarranto comments:Carter's failure to learn from his own experience is really quite stunning. He proudly cites the taking of "my hostages" (a very odd turn of phrase) at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran as evidence that America had diplomatic relations with Iran. Excuse us, but was that fact ever in dispute? The real point--and this is not so subtle that anyone can be excused for missing it--is that diplomacy with Iran didn't work back then, as evidenced by the Iranians' having taken our diplomats hostage! Anyway, we talk to Iran today. We have had high level discussions about their shipment of weapons like EFP's into Iraq. They deny the evidence and claim they are doing their best to stabilize the region. And then they continue to ship arms to kill Americans. What point is there to talk to liars? Their promises have no merit. President Bush was asked why we don't talk to Iran in his question and answer session on October 3, in Lancaster County Pennsylvania. Thanks to the WhiteHouse.gov for the audio and transcript. Here's his answer to a question from a 10th grader in the audience. Play clip. The president is clear that there are times and places to have discussions with your enemies. When we have the proper amount of leverage, we will talk to Iran. But not until we get the Russians, the Chinese, the Germans and others ready to give up their vast financial interests in Iran. When they are willing to work with us, then we can bring economic sanctions against the regime. Any talk before we have leverage is a waste of time. Defining Torture Down - When discomfort and fear is confused with torture Jimmy Carter was also asked about torture in his interview with WBZ. Here is Ed Walsh's question and the former president's answer. Play clip. Notice the deflection of the question about the so called enhanced interrogation techniques? He immediately reframes the question about interrogation techniques to a question about torture. But what is torture, and is what we are doing to get information from detainees actually torture? I don't know. My idea of torture is what John McCain endured in North Vietnam, where he suffered broken bones and denial of medical treatment. From the Atlantic Robert D Kaplan describes the fate of Bud Day, a marine pilot who was shot down over North Vietnam and held for years in a prisoner of war camp. He later wrote a memoir.In December 1967, a prisoner was dumped in Day's cell on the outskirts of Hanoi, known as the Plantation. This prisoner's legs were atrophied and he weighed under 100 pounds. Day helped scrub his face and nurse him back from the brink of death. The fellow American was Navy Lieutenant Commander John Sidney McCain III of the Panama Canal Zone. As his health improved, McCain's rants against his captors were sometimes as ferocious as Day's. The North Vietnamese tried and failed, through torture, to get McCain to accept a release for their own propaganda purposes: The lieutenant commander was the son of Admiral John McCain Jr., the commander of all Ameri
