In her interview with Katie Couric Sarah Palin essentially called Henry Kissinger naive and also proved that she just hasn't done her homework. Couric: You met yesterday with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who is for direct diplomacy with both Iran and Syria. Do you believe the U.S. should negotiate with leaders like President Assad and Ahmadinejad?
Palin: I think, with Ahmadinejad, personally, he is not one to negotiate with. You can't just sit down with him with no preconditions being met. Barack Obama is so off-base in his proclamation that he would meet with some of these leaders around our world who would seek to destroy America and that, and without preconditions being met. That's beyond naïve. And it's beyond bad judgment.
Couric: Are you saying Henry Kissinger ...
Palin: It's dangerous.
Couric: ... is naïve for supporting that?
Palin: I've never heard Henry Kissinger say, "Yeah, I'll meet with these leaders without preconditions being met." Diplomacy is about doing a lot of background work first and shoring up allies and positions and figuring out what sanctions perhaps could be implemented if things weren't gonna go right. That's part of diplomacy.
Actually. That's exactly Henry Kissinger's position. And Couric even went ahead and confirmed it with Kissinger after the interview. Here is what Kissinger said just last week at a forum of five secretaries of state.
"I'm in favor of negotiating with Iran. And one -- (unintelligible) -- of negotiation is to put before Iran our vision of a Middle East -- of a stable Middle East and our notion of nuclear proliferation at a high enough level so that they have to study it."
It's not only Kissinger's position. It is James Baker and Colin Powell's position as well. Here is what Powell said at the event.
Powell: "we should start to talk to them. Don't wait for a letter coming from them. Start discussion. We've been talking to them up through 2003." Asked whether we should "take the initiative?" Powell responded, "Yeah. We shouldn't we? What are we afraid of? We did."
But who cares what Kissinger, Powell and Baker think. Sarah Palin is running the country now...