James Baker - flashback to 1994

Lets see - the Iranians have become nuttier, have demonstrably been shown to be providing fighters and weapons to the terrorists in Iraq, have demonstrably been shown to be supplying weapons and fighters for Hezb's attacks, have demonstrably been shown to lie about aid in fighting illegal drugs (Brit NV gear sent to Iran ostensibly to fight drugs, showing up in Hezb hands in Lebanon), and are now actively engaged in the development of nuclear weapons and promising the elimination of Israel, etc, etc, etc.

Yet, in spite of all that -- TODAY Baker believes they're going to help stabilize Iraq. Simply put - James Baker is a dangerously naive incompetent. He's senile. He's gone soft in the head. He needs to spend his days fly fishing or something.

Middle East Forum

In a discussion in Washington, D.C. on June 28, 1994, with Daniel Pipes and Patrick Clawson:

[...]"Obviously, the idea of reaching out to moderates in Iran was a nonstarter. On the other hand, for the full four years that I was there [at the Department of State], we were quite prepared to sit down at an official level with the government of Iran--there's no surprise about that--provided they understood the first topic on the agenda would be their support for state-sponsored terrorism. We were unwilling during our four years to have any of this back-channeling stuff. So, those are two different situations"[...]

H/T to a commenter at Iraq The Model