Biden announced last week, as if there were something new under the sun, "We are willing to talk to Iran, and to offer a very clear choice: continue down your current course and there will be pressure and isolation; abandon your illicit nuclear program and support for terrorism and there will be meaningful incentives."

Ah, "meaningful incentives." Why didn't someone think of that before? Let's see, here's a CNN clip from May 8, 2008: "The United States has signed off on a European plan that would offer increased incentives for Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment program, senior State Department officials said Thursday. ... The United States, along with the other nations, has been following a 'dual track strategy' with Iran, which includes tightening sanctions on the regime while offering incentives if Iran suspends its enrichment activities." Page back through the past eight years and you can find the identical story over and over again. The U.S. and the Europeans have been perpetual Charlie Browns running to kick the football to the Iranian Lucy.

So now the Obama Administration proposes to do exactly, exactly the same thing. But they do so loudly proclaiming how different they are. And the clock ticks, and Ahmadinejad -- who affirmatively desires global chaos because he believes it portends the arrival of the 12th imam -- gets ever closer to a nuclear weapon.

"We do not believe in a clash of civilizations," said Biden. Another straw man. The Bush administration never framed the war on terror as a clash of civilizations and in fact made every effort to remind the world that we respected Islam. We heard that Islam was a "religion of peace" more from Bush and Co. than we ever heard it from leading Muslims. One of President Bush's first stops in the days after 9/11 was the Islamic Center in Washington, D.C. And it was Bush who began to observe Ramadan at the White House.

The new administration betrays a touching faith in diplomacy. Democrats always do. What they have never seemed to appreciate is that diplomacy without the threat of force is as effective as a watchdog with a muzzle. Perhaps Obama might consider a muzzle the next time Biden goes for an outing.