(From today's LA Times: "The option of regionalizing the effort -- with the help of Iran and Syria -- appears to have the support of former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, the Iraq Study Group co-chairman. The senior U.S. official said that such an approach would require Washington to set aside other goals regarding Syria and Iran -- including its push to keep Tehran from gaining a nuclear weapon. ‘The question is, are they willing to throw out their Iran and Syria policies to help their Iraq policy?’ he said. ‘That's hard for me to conceive.’" Me too. See here for more on the Baker-Hamilton Commission.)

Posted on October 17, 2006:

Yesterday's Los Angeles Times reports:

The former secretary of State, who was a longtime aide to former President George H.W. Bush, also said he favored reaching out to Iran and Syria.

"I personally believe in talking to your enemies," [Secretary James Baker] said. "Neither the Syrians nor the Iranians want a chaotic Iraq … so maybe there is some potential for getting something other than opposition from those countries."

But what do we do in the face of continued Iranian defiance over its nuclear program? Engagement hasn’t worked so far, and I suspect Tehran will demand that in exchange for its “cooperation” in Iraq we must stop pushing for punitive action against them and end our support for democrats inside in Iran. It will be interesting to see if the Baker-Hamilton Iraq commission discusses any of this.