BUSH FOLDED ON IRAN

“Bush sent the No. 3 man in the State Department to sit at a table on July 19 across from an Iranian negotiator, without any preconditions… What drove W. to undermine John McCain by suddenly adopting Barack Obama's foreign policy prescription on Iran?...

(It was because) Oil companies and European governments are not happy with U.S. policy toward Iran. American and European energy corporations are losing billions in potential profits because… sanctions on companies that attempt to develop Iran's oil and gas. The sanctions do not produce regime change, but they do reduce the world supply of oil and gas… The U.S. has therefore simultaneously been interfering with the availability of cheap petroleum products globally and making the case for military action against Iran less compelling.

(Bush’s) opening to Iran was … a victory … of realism… Bush's Iran policy (now) looks more like that of Barack Obama than that of John McCain…”

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/07/31/iran/index.html