Did BushCo Intentionally Blow An Opportunity To Reduce Friction With Iran?

I hope members of the Mainstream Media pick up on this. It looks like Iran was making back-channel overtures to the Bush Administration back in 2003 -- shortly after Bush declared "mission accomplished" in Iraq -- for "comprehensive negotiations to resolve bilateral differences," but the War Mongers running our country would have none of it. Kevin Drum has all the details here, and then offers this suggestion:

[Q]uit letting Cheney's crackpots run foreign policy and talk to Iran. After all, the administration's ideologues killed an opportunity to ratchet down tensions three years ago, and since then things have only gotten worse: Iran has elected a wingnut president, they've made progress on nuclear enrichment, gained considerable influence in Iraq, and increased their global economic leverage as oil supplies have gotten tighter. So why blow another chance? If the talks fail, then they fail. But what possible reason can there be to refuse to even discuss things with Iran — unless you're trying to leave no alternative to war?

Even though the invasion of Iraq was a huge blunder, the Bush Regime could have at least used that invasion to put some pressure on Iran. Hell, Iran was asking for negotiations. What's the old rule again -- always negotiate from a position of strength. It certainly appeared back in May of 2003 that we were in a position of strength (it took several months for the Iraq insurgency to start making major headway).

But Cheney and company were apparently saving Iran for a later war, obviously thinking that Iraq would soon flower into the greatest democracy in the Middle East. Oops.

Now, BushCo refuses to negotiate with Iran, opting instead to let other countries do it. Harry Reid recently expressed regret with regard to BushCo's inability to engage Iran diplomatically:

The Bush administration is relying too heavily on other countries in the international effort to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons, according to Sen. Harry Reid.

Reid, D-Nev., said the administration should be taking the lead, but instead is relying on Germany, France and Great Britain to convince Iran to end its uranium enrichment program.

"It is hard to comprehend," Reid said Tuesday in Reno. "We should be involved at trying to arrive at a diplomatic solution. ... Not just these three countries."

Reid said the Middle East is a "powder keg" because of U.S. failures in Iraq, the rise of fundamentalism and the recent election of Hamas in Palestine.

"Our not being involved diplomatically in trying to solve the situation in Iran shows the Bush failure in foreign policy there and elsewhere."

And he said the U.S. has no military option in Iran.

"We don't have the resources to do it" because of the ongoing war in Iraq," he said.

BushCo's ability to consistently do the wrong thing never ceases to amaze me.