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America in the Middle East

Pelosi fraternizes with the enemy


By Stan Goodenough
April 04, 2007

For Republican US President George W. Bush, Syrian strongman Bashar el-Assad is a destabilizing Middle Eastern force, a major contributor to last summer’s war between Israel and the Lebanese Hizb’allah, and responsible for aiding and abetting many of the insurgents who have killed thousands of people in Iraq, among them US servicemen.

Along with Cuba and Libya, Syria is one of the states the Bush administration described as being “beyond the axis of evil.”

For Democrat and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, however, Assad and Syria present a beckoning door, a platform upon which the newly-appointed third-most-powerful American politician can begin to lay her legacy.

On Wednesday, then, wearing a skirt short enough to offend the sensitivities of many in the Arab world, Pelosi sat down with Assad in Damascus, smiling for the cameras and nodding sagely in apparent agreement as her host earnestly directed a stream of conversation in her direction.

According to journalists at the press conference, Assad quickly drew Pelosi into discussing the Arab-Israeli conflict, and this became the issue that dominated their remarks.

The Syrian appeared pleased to have Bush’s most powerful political foe at his side.

Pelosi said afterwards she welcomed the “assurances we received from the president” that he was ready to resume the Middle East peace [sic] process and to talk with the Israelis.

“I hope the road to Damascus can be the road to peace,” she said.

Pelosi indicated that Jerusalem had asked her to convey to Assad that Israel was willing to resume negotiations with Syria.

“Likewise Damascus has now sent a message to Israel via Pelosi that Syria is willing to resume talks with Israel,” reported CNN.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office denies that it asked the American to take any message to Syria.

Pelosi asked Assad to help secure the release of three kidnapped Israeli soldiers, something he affably agreed to do, but only on condition Israel set free thousands of terrorists it is holding in its jails.

Trying to justify her decision to lead a congressional delegation into enemy territory, Pelosi said doing so opened the doors of dialogue with the country’s leadership which the Bush administration had been keeping closed.

Bush slammed the visit, saying it would send mixed signals to the Syrian leadership. But the Syrians don't seem to be confused.

One veteran Middle East journalist reported afterwards that Syria was “feeling very satisfied that this visit has gone ahead over the heads of the US administration and even of the president himself.”

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