Whither Damascus?
I was watching Nancy Pelosi talk to Charlie Rose about her visit with the Ba’athist dictator of Syria and I’m thinking —again— that she accepted Assad’s invitation to come to Damascus with either the tacit approval of or by way of some agreement with George W. Bush.
There’s no downside for any of the players in this game.
For Assad, it was a propaganda coup to con the highest-ranking Democrat in the American government into coming to visit and, thereby, validate him. Assad can now claim that he has met with the leader of the domestic opposition to Bush —and spin it however he wants.
For Pelosi, the same propaganda value obtains. She may now claim that her efforts in diplomacy with one of the worst villains in the Middle East presents a true alternative to the world for the potential of Democratic control of America’s foreign policy. This is probably a comfort of some kind to the anti-war Left and liberal Democrats —even though the vast majority of them would prefer isolationism or, at most, boutique interventionism.
But it would not be a comfort if it were so that Pelosi’s visit was done at Bush’s behest. I can imagine that, with Assad’s invitation to her a known fact within the Bush White House, the President would’ve consented to let it ride (although not without the requisite partisan rancor). Bush may have figured that such a visit was as much of an overreach as he could have wanted —and may have even used Pelosi as some kind of carrier pigeon.
Admittedly, that sort of cooperation would also mean that Pelosi is not as much of a danger as I once thought. Like most of the Democratic leadership, her opposition to the War for Iraq is not really based on any principles, but on the partisan value that can be exploited with an ill-informed electorate. Opposing the war is simply good for business —so long as you can deceive the American People into believing that we have lost our purpose in Iraq.
Anyhow, it’s a dangerous game. We are fewer than 18 months away from the next Presidential election —and people like Pelosi absolutely must find a way to begin transitioning away from the seditious bullshit that they’ve been spouting since the 2000 Election and at least pretend, rhetorically, to invoke patriotism. Why? Because the Ownership Society is almost upon them. It comes as a package deal with further electoral successes.
It’s almost time to accept what comes next.
The kids were torching gas stations throughout Teheran last night by the dozens, but will that be enough to bring the mullahs’ government down? Of course not. It’s going to take something far more violent than that.
Ready for your close-up, assholes?
The American military is ready for you to quit calling them torturers, murderers, idiots, and dupes working for the Bushitler Imperial War Machine, Inc.
