Talk

If only we could talk to those countries with which we are at odds. The EU had talks with Iran scheduled today, over the nucler issue. But Iran cancelled the talks and Iran's President Ahmadinejad once again called for a debate with President Bush.
What purpose would such a debate serve? The US has already offered Iran technology to replace their own nuclear program, and Iran rejected it. Ahmadinejad has already made it clear that his country's program is not debatable. What would be debatable, then? Hezbollah? Hezbollah is literally Iran's Special Forces military unit. It is designed to strike world wide. There is nothing to debate there. Human rights? Does anyone really believe Ahmadinejad would even mention that his country political prisoners are allowed to starve to death? Would he mention that if a woman is raped in Iran that it is the victim, not the rapist, who is arrested and sentenced to death? If this seems unbelieveable, check Ghazal Omid's website.
The UN general assembly, where Iran's president wants to have the debate, does not even have a protocal for one on one debates such as the one Iran is proposing. On every issue, each interested party is given five minutes to deliver a speech on behalf of his or her government. There is no venue for the type of debate which answers point and counterpoint.
If you are really interested in where Ahmadinejad stands, he has a blog one can visit and read exactly where he stands. It is written in Farsi, but there are buttons on the right-hand sidebar that enable a translated view.
And, all you have to do to find where President Bush stands is turn on the television, radio, or read a newspaper. A debate would be pointless.
We do need to talk. We need to tell Iran that if they do not stop their uranium enrichment program, stop their support of an armed Hezbollah, and reform their human rights environment, they will not be getting refined gasoline, they will not be allowed to travel, and that the world will find oil from other sources. The entire world needs to tell Iran this. We can talk to Russia, which seems to be the key to Iran's issues. We need to offer Russia incentives to stop Iran's programs, and to agree to sanctions.
China does not want to jeopardize her trade relationship with the US, so that country could also be persuaded to approve sanctions against Iran.
It is okay to talk, we just need to talk about the right things to the right people.