At his appearance at the Heritage Foundation, Admiral Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff:

I would hope that in the future we could figure out a way to dialogue with them to figure out a way ahead. We've done that in the past with our enemies. We should be able to do that as well.

Meanwhile, in Shanghai, talks went nowhere among the big powers on what to do about Iran's nuclear research program. "We can say we agreed on the main content of a plan to restart negotiations, but not all the problems have been resolved," Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister He Yafei told reporters. You'd think President Bush might send Admiral Mullen to talk to Iran directly, rather than meeting in Shanghai with Chinese, Russian, and European diplomats. Oh, that's right. Bush. Never mind.

Adding fool to the fire, the Wall Street Journal taunts Bush about why he's planning to "slink out of office" leaving Iran intact:

So: Iran is contributing to the death of GIs, is arming our enemies in Iraq, and is proceeding to ignore the world by enriching uranium for a nuclear weapon. Is the Bush Administration merely going to slink out of office with that legacy?