Wash. Post ignored own prior reporting that Sec. Gates agrees U.S. should "sit down and talk" with Iran

Summary: The Washington Post reported that President Bush "compared people seeking talks with Iran and radical Islamic groups to the Nazis' appeasers" and noted that "Democratic leaders demanded that [Sen. John] McCain repudiate Bush's comments." The article reported that "McCain joined in on Bush's side" and quoted McCain as saying: "What does Senator Obama want to talk about with Ahmadinejad?" But the article did not note that, as the Post previously reported, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, like Obama, has said that the United States needs to be willing to "sit down and talk" with Iran.

In a May 16 Washington Post article discussing President Bush's controversial remarks in his May 15 speech to the Israeli Knesset, staff writer Michael Abramowitz reported that Bush "compared people seeking talks with Iran and radical Islamic groups to the Nazis' appeasers" and that he "warned that the United States must not negotiate with Iran or radical groups such as Hamas." Abramowitz noted that "Democratic leaders demanded that [Sen. John] McCain repudiate Bush's comments," and he reported that, rather than "repudiate" the comments, "McCain joined in on Bush's side" and quoted McCain as saying: "Why does Senator [Barack] Obama want to sit down with a state sponsor of terrorism? What does Senator Obama want to talk about with [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad?" But Abramowitz did not note that, as his Post colleague Karen DeYoung reported in a May 15 article, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, like Obama, has said that the United States needs to be willing to "sit down and talk" with Iran. DeYoung reported that in a May 14 speech to the Academy of American Diplomacy, a group of retired diplomats, Gates said of Iran, "We need to figure out a way to develop some leverage ... and then sit down and talk with them. ... If there is going to be a discussion, then they need something, too. We can't go to a discussion and be completely the demander, with them not feeling that they need anything from us."

From the May 16 Post article:

On an emotional visit to mark Israel's 60th anniversary, President Bush on Thursday compared people seeking talks with Iran and radical Islamic groups to the Nazis' appeasers, provoking a political storm at home and accusations that he was politicizing the celebration.

[...]

In the speech, Bush warned that the United States must not negotiate with Iran or radical groups such as Hamas.

"Some seem to believe we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along," Bush told the Israeli lawmakers. "We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it is -- the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history."

[...]

Democratic leaders demanded that McCain repudiate Bush's comments, but McCain joined in on Bush's side. "Why does Senator Obama want to sit down with a state sponsor of terrorism? What does Senator Obama want to talk about with Ahmadinejad?" McCain asked reporters while campaigning in Ohio.

[...]

White House press secretary Dana Perino dismissed the Democrats' complaints, saying that Bush's remarks were not directed at Obama. "This is not new policy that the president announced, and it should come as no surprise to anybody that the president would talk about this," Perino said.

Obama is far from the only politician who has advocated a renewed dialogue with Iran to try to get it to give up its nuclear-enrichment programs. A smaller number of U.S. politicians, including former president Jimmy Carter, have said the United States should talk to Hamas.

—M.G.