Bridges to nowhere

Remember Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's "masterwork" of a speech to the True Believers™ at the Republican National Convention?

Alluding to [Barack] Obama's stated willingness to personally meet with Iranian leaders as president, Palin charged, "Terrorist states are seeking nuclear weapons without delay; he wants to meet them without preconditions."

Her words were greeted by a chorus of appreciative laughter.

Hilarious! Meanwhile, back on Planet Earth ...

Five former secretaries of state, gathering to give their best advice to the next president, agreed Monday that the United States should talk to Iran.

The Bush administration has dragged its feet on even minimal contact with Iran under hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a course the five former secretaries of state implicitly criticized.

Which was Obama's point, I believe.

Then there was Palin's remark to ABC's Charles Gibson that America mustn't "second guess" Israel's exercising military options against Iran. Take it away, Warren Christopher et al:

Nor did [the five former secretaries of state] suggest the United States should keep its distance out of concern for Israel, which Ahmadinejad has said "one day will be wiped off the map."

"The military options are very poor," Christopher said. "And we have to tell the Israelis that."

As for Sarah Palin's claim that Russia's recent adventure in Georgia was "unprovoked":

It was "foolhardy," [Colin Powell] said, for Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili to "light a match" with a military operation in South Ossetia to forcibly reassert its authority over the breakaway region.

So what experience does Sarah Palin have in the field of national security to offset the foregoing daftness?

Sez John McCain: "Energy. She knows more about energy than probably anyone else in the United States of America."

But just the other day Palin claimed that Alaska supplies "nearly 20%" of U.S. domestic energy. Whoops. Not even close. Sorry about that, Chief. Would you believe a childhood love of cows?