The five tenors

Just what were those five former U.S. secretaries of state thinking yesterday when they encouraged President Bush to open a dialogue with Iran and to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center? Did they really think that reason was driving U.S. foreign policy? Don't they still read the newspaper? Colin Powell, who was Bush's first secretary of state, Henry Kissinger, James Baker III, Warren Christopher and Madeleine Albright, all offered common sense suggestions to current world affairs complications when they spoke at a University of Georgia-sponsored forum in Athens. "One has to talk with adversaries," said Henry Kissinger, who served in the Nixon and Ford administrations. Baker served under the first President Bush and Albright and Christopher served under President Clinton. The five also said the closure of Guantanamo Bay, where suspected terrorists have been held for years without trial in violation of the Geneva Conventions, would help restore the tarnished international image of the United States. Thank you very much. But who were they talking to? Was this for the consumption of the general public? The Bush administration is certainly not listening.