Charlie Rose Science Series
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The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How The War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals
by Jane Mayer
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by Jane Mayer
Buy it
02/23/2007
Nicholas Burns
A conversation with Nicholas Burns, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs
Keywords:
A conversation with Nicholas Burns, the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, about the relationship between the United States and Iran, in light of the war in Iraq and Iran's accelerating nuclear program. Burns dismisses allegations that the U.S. refuses to participate in diplomacy with Iran, arguing that Iran has been the obstacle to direct talks.
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Charlie Rose DVDs on Amazon.
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Audio available through Audible.com.
Transcripts
Transcripts available through Voxant.
Transcripts available through Voxant.
Not impressed at all by Nicholas Burns. He is a government salesman/lawyer and not a diplomat! He looked & talked like those midnight TV infomercials. He shamelessly tried to cover the fact that America did arrange for the military coup in 1953 in Iran: "they think we did it...รข??. Glad you corrected him. Also, for a senior diplomat, it is not forgivable to erroneously state the Moslems in India are Shia! Wikipedia says only 20% of the Indian Moslems are Shia.
A great show tonight. Burns & Atkinson were both succinct & informative.
Of course the whole mess with Iran would never be upon us now if the United States had minded its own business decades ago. Read the history of American-Iranian relations. I was a young professor at the University of Texas at Austin, by the way, during the Iranian Hostage Crisis. When the Iranian ambassador was invited to speak at the University at that time, he was introduced with cordiality and without spin--a far cry from what just transpired at Columbia University. Didn't Stanley Hoffmann of Harvard predict way back when, on this very show, that Iran would emerge as the victor of a conflict in Iraq? I for one don't believe a word Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Burns says: the administration--joined by such kissing cousins as Joe Lieberman--is itching for armed conflict with Iran. And gosh, how can Mr. Burns say the administration hasn't been preoccupied with Iraq and Iran, and has consequently put the Palestinian-Israeli conflict on the back (way back) burner?
Of course the whole mess with Iran would never be upon us now if the United States had minded its own business decades ago. Read the history of American-Iranian relations. I was a young professor at the University of Texas at Austin, by the way, during the Iranian Hostage Crisis. When the Iranian ambassador was invited to speak at the University at that time, he was introduced with cordiality and without spin--a far cry from what just transpired at Columbia University. Didn't Stanley Hoffmann of Harvard predict way back when, on this very show, that Iran would emerge as the victor of a conflict in Iraq? I for one don't believe a word Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Burns says: the administration--joined by such kissing cousins as Joe Lieberman--is itching for armed conflict with Iran. And gosh, how can Mr. Burns say the administration hasn't been preoccupied with Iraq and Iran, and has consequently put the Palestinian-Israeli conflict on the back (way back) burner?