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The Door Opens - Update: The Door Closes

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Last Mohican2/21/2009 4:57:50 pm PST

I knew it! I knew it!

BBC: Iran held “backroom” talks with Western diplomats

Iran offered to stop attacking coalition troops in Iraq nearly four years ago in an attempt to get the West to accept Tehran’s nuclear program, a British diplomat told the BBC in an interview aired Saturday.

As some of you may recall, something like this was my proposed explanation for these events:

1. As the Bush presidency drew to a close, the coalition suddenly found itself decisively winning the Iraq war, which previously was a tough fight at best, and an unwinnable quagmire at worst.

2. Bush repeatedly insisted upon doing nothing to stop Iran’s nuclear program, and reportedly even forbade Israel from doing anything about it.

3. The National Intelligence Estimate in 2007 inexplicably took a bizarrely soft approach to Iran, claiming that Iran’s nuclear weapons program remained halted.

This article states that none of the European countries accepted the deal, but I’m wondering if President Bush did, in order to salvage some of his legacy and at least go out on the winning side of the Iraq war.