Bush Adviser Questions John Kerry's Reference to Past Calls for 'Regime Change' in Iran

John Kerry ignited a debate Wednesday over former president Bush's policy toward Iran when he said at a Senate hearing that the Obama administration has abandoned calls for "regime change" in Tehran and expects a response to its diplomatic outreach.

"That is not the current policy of this new administration, and it is important for Iran to understand that," Kerry said during a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "Just as we abandon calls for regime change in Tehran and recognize the legitimate Iranian role in the region, Iran's leaders need to moderate their behavior."

But the Bush administration mostly stopped calling for regime change in Iran during its second term, said Nicholas Burns, a former undersecretary of state under Bush. Burns told Bloomberg after the hearing that the Bush administration stressed negotiations starting in 2006.

"That was the focus," said Burns, who now teaches at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. "The Iranians walked away from that."

Asked to respond to Burns' comments after the hearing, Kerry spokesman Frederick Jones told FOXNews.com that "Sen. Kerry stands by that statement. Everyone know that regime change was the implicit policy of the Bush administration for many years."

Burns, in his testimony at the hearing, urged Obama to publicly repudiate regime change.

Every lib I have ever met claims to be able to read the conservative mind - they always ‘know’ what you meant, ‘know’ you are thinking thus and so, and Kerry ‘knows’ what was President Bush’s mind concerning Iran -

I wonder if he knows what I am thinking about him right now?

It was abandoned when the MSM, Rats and RINOs began yelling that Bush was going to go into Iran and then they threatened to legislate prohibiting him from doing so.

As a result of which the Bush administration lost all chance of negotiating a settlement with Iran because the Bush administration was rendered toothless by the Democrats. So, the world is now confronted with the stark choice of Iran getting the bomb or military intervention. Since Obama will not intervene militarily, a stark choice between Iranians getting the bomb or military intervention by the Israelis. It is not even clear if Obama will accommodate that choice by the Israelis.

Therefore the Democrats by their yelling and threatening, as you point out, have increased the chances of nuclear war or military strike. They have increased the chances of the entire balance of power in the middle east being turned on its head with the disintegration of whatever minimal restraint and order which exists as a result of American power and influence. When the Iranians get the bomb, every other Gulf state must either appease Iran or get the bomb themselves. The chances for atomic war in the Middle East will increase astronomically. The price of oil must inevitably spike.

If people die horrible deaths from atomic blasts and radiation sickness put the blame on those chanting, "Bush lied and people died."

John Kerry's remarks today in the Senate are just more of the same and he will bear a terrible responsibility for the lives lost in the Middle East just as he will pay a forfeit in heaven for lives lost in Indochina.

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