The Republicans In Syria

The White House has spend the better part of the week blasting Speaker Nancy Pelosi for going to Syria and meeting President Assad. Whether or not Pelosi was right for going, the White House HAS been strangely quiet on three other members of Congress who were in Syria this week...all Republicans.

Congressmen Frank Wolf (R-Virginia), Robert Aderholt (R-Alabama) and Joseph Pitts (R-Pennsylvania) were in Syria a few days before Pelosi. All three have been critical of the President's response to Pelosi's trip;

"I don't care what the administration says on this. You've got to do what you think is in the best interest of your country, I want us to be successful in Iraq. I want us to clamp down on Hezbollah." -Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Virginia

"This is an area where we would disagree with the administration, None of us in the Congress work for the president. We have to cast our own votes and ultimately answer to our own constituents. ... I think there's room that we can try to work with them as long as they know where we draw the line." -Rep Rob Aderholt (R-Alabama)

The White House, which likes to blast Pelosi by name, went easy on their fellow Republicans;

"We discourage all visits to Syria because it's a state sponsor of terror. A lot of officials have gone, and it hasn't changed the Syrians' behavior." -WH Spokesman Alex Conant

Yeah, neither had isolating them.

Pelosi’s Foreign Policy

In a slap in the face of President Bush's "I'm too good to talk to you" foreign policy stance, Speaker Nancy Pelosi is heading to Syria next week to visit with President Basher al-Assad. The White House doesn't want her to go, and is "discouraging the visit," but Pelosi will go anyway.

While I'm not a big fan of Syria, specifically because of their support for Hamas, Hezbollah and how they like to screw with the Lebanese government, diplomacy does not hurt. President Bush's "no diplomacy foreign policy" has not gotten us anywhere except on the rest of the world's shit list, so what can it hurt if Pelosi tries this?

It is, by the way, encouraged by the Iraq Study Group that we do talk to some of the powers in the region, including Syria and Iran, to put together a solution in Iraq, and if we've learned anything from Iraq, it's that bombing everyone who disagrees with us back to the stone age doesn't bring about change, despite the fact that it may seem like the easy solution. Blowing things up doesn't necessarily make people respect us; it just makes then want to blow our stuff up too.

I have to admit though, I'm kind of surprised at the way Nancy Pelosi has been acting as Speaker of the House. I rather suspected she would be a rollover type, who would eventually cave in to the President if he applied enough press to her. Actually, she's been one tough woman. It makes me wonder how at the end she will rank among the Speakers.

Oh, and by the way, just to prove the Democrats aren't the party of the terrorists, Pelosi is ALSO heading over to Israel to address the Knesset. Diplomacy is a good thing.

And I Thought We Wanted Them To Stay Out

Somebody is losing their political clout at the White House...cause this is not how Bush normally is.

Wasn't only a few months ago when President Bush wanted Iran and Syria to stay out of Iraq...completely...now they can get involved, but under certain conditions.

Still, if Iran sinks it's teeth into Iraq, which is likely since half of Iraq is Shiite and the only real Shiite power is Iran, expect to see some sort of Islamic state form in Baghdad...one that will make us yearn for the days of Saddam.

No better way to defeat Islamic fundamentalist than essentially giving them a state...and we handed them Baghdad on March 20, 2003.