No clothes on the Emperor:
On the Republican side, Huckabee, as previously noted here, has the most connection to the realities of the universe…
Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee ripped the Bush administration’s war against terrorism Friday, delivering a bold and potentially risky speech that could establish the former Arkansas governor as the maverick among top Republican candidates and test his party’s loyalty to President Bush.
“This administration’s bunker mentality has been counterproductive both at home and abroad,” Huckabee said in opening a broad indictment of Bush’s style and policy.
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But beyond that, he differed with Bush across the map, using language more often heard from Democrats. He accused the administration of shunning allies and turning world sentiment against the United States.
“They’ve done a poor job of communicating and consulting countries much as they have, frankly, the American people,” Huckabee told about 150 people at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a center-right think tank in Washington. “Our prestige in the world has been marred.”
On Iran, he said Bush blew a chance to improve relations right after the 2001 terrorist attacks and that the United States should be talking to Iran today.
“When we first invaded Afghanistan, Iran helped, especially in dealings with their ally, the Northern Alliance,” he said. “They wanted to join us in fighting al Qaida. …The CIA and State Department supported a partnership. Some in the White House and beyond did not. And when President Bush included Iran in the axis of evil, everything went downhill pretty fast.”
Even with today’s sour relations, he said the United States should talk to Iran and use the promise of better relations and increased trade as well as the threat of economic isolation to persuade the country to abandon its nuclear program.
“The administration has quite properly said it will not take the military option off the table. But if we don’t put some other options on the table, eventually the military option becomes the only viable one. Right now we’re proceeding down only one track,” he said.