Cheney Vetoed Negotiations with Iran?

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…An Iranian offer to help the United States stabilize Iraq and end its military support for Hezbollah and Hamas was rejected by Vice President Dick Cheney in 2003, a former top State Department official told the British Broadcasting Corp.

The U.S. State Department was open to the offer, which came in an unsigned letter sent shortly after the American invasion of Iraq, Lawrence Wilkerson, former Secretary of State Colin Powell’s chief of staff, told BBC’s Newsnight in a program broadcast Wednesday night. But, Wilkerson said, Cheney vetoed the deal.

Juxtapose this with the following:

Lawmakers Wary of Talks With Iran and Syria

The head of the bipartisan advisory group that urged a change in the American approach to Iraq insisted today, in the face of skepticism from Congressional leaders, that the United States should engage Iran and Syria diplomatically as it moves to reduce its role in Iraq.

…Representative Tom Lantos, the California Democrat who has just assumed the chairmanship of the panel, said it was “utterly unrealisticâ€? to imagine that Tehran and Damascus would help the United States stabilize Iraq, given that they have interests in destabilizing that country and have long worked against American interests in the region.

The committee’s ranking Republican, Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, was even more hostile to the idea of negotiating with Iran and Syria. “Given the interests of these two countries, their ongoing terrorist activities, and their poor record of international cooperation, I strongly believe that it would be a mistake to turn to them for assistance in Iraq,� she said.

On of the tragedies of politics is that after you have demonized your adversary long enough you begin to close down to even imagining the reconciliation of interests. Sometimes we then become obstacles to our own interests.