It's not quite an endorsement of Sen. Barack Obama, but it's pretty close. On Newsweek's Web site, and blogged earlier by Laura Rozen over at War And Piece, R. Nicholas Burns, formerly the State Department's No. 3 official, comes down firmly in favor of the United States talking to its enemies, including Iran.

Burns, it should be noted, has long been a close friend and ally of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and was the Bush administration's point man on Iran for most of President Bush's second term.

He writes:  Talking to our adversaries is no one's idea of fun, and it is not a sure prescription for success in every crisis. But it is crude, simplistic and wrong to charge that negotiations reflect weakness or appeasement. More often than not, they are evidence of a strong and self-confident country.

Burns does not go as far as Obama, who during the Democratic primary campaign last year told a questioner he'd be willing to meet leaders like Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez "without preconditions."

Burns continues:  I'm not saying the next president should sit down immediately with Ahmadinejad. We should initiate contact at a lower level to investigate whether it's worth putting the president's prestige on the line. We should leave the threat of military action on the table to give us greater leverage as we talk to the Iranian government.

Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain has ridiculed the idea of negotiating with Ahmadinejad, who has threatened to destroy Israel, over its nuclear weapons program or other issues.

Still, the former senior diplomat says the GOP attacks are misplaced:  I lived this issue for 27 years as a career diplomat, serving both Republican and Democratic administrations. Maybe that's why I've been struggling to find the real wisdom and logic in this Republican assault against Obama.

In largely refusing to deal with Iran, the United States is only isolating itself, he says:  To illustrate how far we have isolated ourselves, think about this: I served as the Bush administration's point person on Iran for three years but was never permitted to meet an Iranian.

Burns succesor, William Burns (no relation), was finally allowed to sit in on a meeting with the Iranians this past summer.