Posted by
Always To The Right on Monday, December 31, 2007 8:35:33 AM
The Captain gives us some information into the visit by two U.S. legislators to Syria.
Nicolas Sarkozy has suspended diplomatic relations with Syria over its murderous interference with Lebanon. France's action to isolate Syria comes as two American Senators flew to Damascus
to kowtow to the Assad government and force Israel to give up the Golan
Heights. The bipartisan duo could learn something from French fortitude . . .
Assad wouldn't have time to meet anyway. He's going to be busy
receiving Ted Kennedy and Arlen Specter on their mission to see how
many concessions we can offer to Syria while the French fume on the
sidelines . . .
"The time is right now, and prospects are very good,"
Specter told reporters Sunday on his 16th visit to Syria since 1984.
"The parties will continue talks through intermediaries, and it's my
hope and expectation at some point, if preliminary progress has been
made, the U.S. government would be ready too."
The time is right? The prospects are good? Syria has conducted a
series of assassinations in Lebanon over the past two years, killing
politicians who oppose its rule over what it sees as a vassal state.
The UN has demanded cooperation from Assad and his government, which
has not been forthcoming, over the first assassination of Rafik Hariri.
On top of that, Syria has re-armed Hezbollah in the south in
defiance of UN resolutions and a laughably inept peacekeeping force in
southern Lebanon. They have interfered in Lebanon's political processes
and kept its government in a stalemate. Even the French have stopped
talking with Syria because of its intransigence. What prospects look
good, other than enhanced concessions from Israel and the US that will
only encourage further Syrian machinations?
Specter and Kennedy [Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy (D-R.I.)] will fall all over themselves to give back the
Golan Heights without addressing any of these issues. They want to come
back with their signature Neville Chamberlain umbrellas and wave a
piece of paper to proclaim peace in our time while appeasing a
murderous dictator, someone who assassinates real democrats rather than
suffer their existence. Israel gave them a blessing, all right -- they
must have felt blessed when the pair left Israel, and they know that
the duo have no hope in wringing concessions out of Syria that Assad's
trading partner France couldn't get.
First Nancy Pelosi and now Specter and Kennedy have made pilgrimages
to Damascus. One might have hoped that scales would have fallen from
some Congressional eyes by this time. It seems that none of them
learned from Sarkozy and took a good opportunity to keep their mouths
shut.