SanFranNan in Syria

Speaker Pelosi sporting a nifty hijab....

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi decided that the time was right for her to bulk up her foreign policy credentials. So she decided to visit Syria and experience the joys of interacting with a fascist, Islamist state in a meet n'greet with Boy Assad and his cronies.

She is the latest of a handful of congressmen to do so, following the recommendations of James Bakers' Iraq Study Group report.

The White House has been less than enthusiastic about Pelosi's visit with President Bashar al-Assad, saying it just provides the Syrian leader with a photo-op to exploit.

"We have made it clear to high-ranking officials, whether they be Republicans or Democrats, that going to Syria sends mixed signals," Bush told reporters at the White House. He said Pelosi's meeting would "lead the Assad government to believe they're part of the mainstream of the international community."

"The position of this administration is that the best way to meet with a leader like Assad or people from Syria is in the larger context of trying to get the global community to help change his behavior," Bush said.

The President is quite correct about this. What Congresswoman Pelosi has done is to provide legitimacy to a murderous, jihad supporting fascist dictator and his regime. And to weaken pro-democracy forces that oppose Syria in places like Lebanon.

Even Congresswoman Pelosi had to realize that, as she went shooting off on a quick side trip to Lebanon to reassure political leaders there that she wasn't involved in selling them out to Syria. I have a distinct feeling that they may have taken her assurances with a grain of salt... given what else is going on in the region.

In the cultural lexicon of the Arab world, our sending an envoy to a country like Syria that the US has hostile relations with is a sign of submission and retreat. And it does indeed send `mixed signals' to both our friends and our enemies in the region.

There's also a message to the Arab world when the leader of the opposition party - and a woman - openly defies President Bush and essentially conducts diplomacy on her own.

What people like Congresswoman Pelosi, John Kerry, Bill Richardson, Harry Reid and others screaming about direct `negotiations' with countries like Iran and Syria fail to understand is that it's an entirely different scenario than negotiations with countries like Canada or Australia. To the mullahs and Assad, any commitments made to non-Muslims are mere pieces of paper to be discarded when it's convenient.

The mindset they operate out of is this: infidel, what gifts are you bringing to the table? How much jirzya (tribute) are you offering us to leave you in peace for awhile?