By Andrew L. Jaffee

Three (retired) “military chiefs,” Army Lt. Gen. Robert Gard, U.S. Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Hoar, and Navy Vice Adm. Jack Shanahan, have urged the Bush administration to “engage immediately in direct talks with the government of Iran without preconditions.” Don’t these men have to study history at their military academies? It seems unusual for military types to advocate unconditional negotiations with dictators. What happened to the lessons of history and a respect for law? Is Neville Chamberlain’s “peace treaty” with Hitler water under the bridge? What about enforcing the rule of law? The “1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide unambiguously makes it as much of a crime to incite acts of genocide with words as to physically commit them with weapons.” Iranian President Ahmadinejad has called for Israel to be wiped off the map, and has held a conference to “prove” that the Holocaust never happened. Unconditional talks with another Hitler? With these kinds of generals, who needs enemies?