Barack Obama's senior military adviser is blaming President Bush for poor U.S.-Iranian relations, claiming rampant anti-Americanism in Iran would have been averted if Bush hadn't included the Islamic Republic in the "axis of evil" outlined in the president's 2002 State of the Union address.

Gen. Merrill McPeak, a former Air Force chief of staff and a Joint Chiefs member during the presidency of George H. W. Bush, told Insight magazine that as president, Obama would meet with America's enemies and try to find common ground -- like the way the U.S. and Iran both oppose Al Qaeda.

McPeak said Iran has always hated the Taliban and "cooperated with us quite completely in the initial phases of our Afghanistan operation." But Tehran's leadership was "insulted" after Bush included Iran in the axis of evil, along with Iraq and North Korea.

Noting that the general utterly disregarded Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's call for the destruction of top U.S. ally, Israel, former Reagan administration official Frank Gaffney told the magazine that McPeak also failed to consider that the 1979 Islamic revolution was a direct rebuke to U.S.-Iranian relations.

Iran also funds Hezbollah, which has attacked and killed U.S. military and civilians, and Tehran's religious leadership repeatedly calls for "death to America" -- all actions that pre-dated the "axis of evil" statement, he said.

"It is not simply naïve, it is reckless to ignore" ongoing threats from Iran, said Gaffney, who runs the Center for Security Policy.

Gaffney noted that Iran continues to attack U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Hezbollah and Tehran's intelligence agents are developing "cells capable of unleashing deadly violence here as well as elsewhere. Even an individual without appreciable expertise in such matters like Sen. Obama should be able to discern these realities. It is inexplicable how a professional military officer like Gen. McPeak could fail to do so."

McPeak repeated the Democratic presidential candidate's pledge to work with U.S. enemies as long as they are established states.

As for meeting with Al Qaeda leader Usama bin Laden, who has declared war on America, McPeak said, "No. Bin Laden doesn't represent any country or legitimate government anywhere. "

Click here to read the Insight magazine article.