Learning to Realistically Compromise

Fred Kaplan has an interesting comparison in his Slate article concerning the international diplomatic differences between the Obama and Bush administration:

For instance, Obama will almost certainly open up talks with Syria as a means of isolating Iran and cutting off both countries' links with Hezbollah. Bush always opposed any contact—and vetoed efforts by some of his top officials to go that route—because Syria supported terrorists. By this argument, had someone with this view been president during World War II, the United States wouldn't have struck up an alliance with the Soviet Union against Nazi Germany on the grounds that Stalin wasn't much less evil than Hitler—and we would have faced catastrophic defeat in our high moral dudgeon.

As previous posts suggest, it's about time we opened up diplomacy. The World War II comparison, although, is good at highlighting the error of the previous administration's "black or white" policy .