Brent Scowcroft, a former Air Force general and presidential adviser to the first President Bush, is widely considered to be one of the preeminent foreign policy minds in the United States.
His thoughts on having direct talks with adversaries...
Brent Scowcroft, the national security adviser to Presidents Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush, said on Monday that he agrees with the position, stated mainly by Sen. Barack Obama, that the U.S. would benefit from having direct talks with the leaders of its most distrusted adversaries.If you don't talk to your enemies how will you ever reach common ground.? Do you think you will wake up one day and they will just magically decide you were right all along?
"Absolutely," said Scowcroft, when asked by The Huffington Post whether he thought the next president should meet with the likes of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. "It's hard to make things better if you don't talk."
Every GOP President in modern history has negotiated with our enemies. Often with great success. Richard Nixon opened up relations with China. Ronald Reagan negotiated with Iran. And even our current President resolved the North Korean crisis in two days by doing exactly what he chastised John Kerry for suggesting -- having direct talks with North Korea.
