Cenk Uygur claims that Nancy Pelosi, by visiting Syria, "is doing [President] Bush's job for him." In support of this assertion, Uygur notes that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert "had to find some way to get a diplomatic message to Syria. So, he chose the one responsible senior US stateswoman going there -- Nancy Pelosi." But Pelosi wasn't sufficiently responsible to avoid the need for Olmert to issue a clarification of his country's position following the Speaker's public statement on the subject.
In light of "quotes attributed to Pelosi," Olmert's office felt compelled to say that "although Israel is interested in peace with Syria, that country continues to be part of the axis of evil and a force that encourages terror in the entire Middle East." Olmert's office added that "in order to conduct serious and genuine peace negotiations, Syria must cease its support of terror, cease its sponsoring of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad organizations, refrain from providing weapons to Hizbollah and bringing about the destabilizing of Lebanon, cease its support of terror in Iraq, and relinquish the strategic ties it is building with the extremist regime in Iran."
This, of course, has been Israel's position throughout, so Uygur is completely off base in claiming that Olmert is employing Pelosi to any substantive purpose. Instead, Olmert had to waste his time mopping up after Pelosi. But if Pelosi remembered to tell Assad that he's "part of the axis of evil," it was worth the extra effort.
Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 8)
1. Why isn't PAkistan part of the "axis of evil" Why are they considered our ally when they are harboring the terrorists. Supposedly Osama Bin Laden is even in Pakistan. GWB lost site of who the terrorists were a long time ago when he said "I am no longer worried about Osama Bin Laden". Instead he has put us in a mess in Iraq. Dimplomacy is better then War. Had he done that with Iraq in the first place our country could have focussed on the real terror threats.
Eric at 6:31PM on Apr 4th 2007
2. Paul, this is all simply minutiae. Nancy is one of numerous members of Congress from both sides of the aisle who has visited Syria - but of course Bush only chastizes Democrats for attempting to get a dialogue started. Nancy expressed her unwavering support for Israel, and then went to talk to a hostile regime. She is not an ambassador for Israel, she is an American trying to get peace negotiations going - something the Republicans have miserably failed to do. One reason the Bush Administration is so ineffective diplomatically, is that before he ever visits a hostile regime he piles on the criticism and tells them how to run their own country IMMEDIATELY before their visit. So, the visit is off to a bad start before it ever starts.
Pelosi has shown that the Democrats have a much better chance of achieving a calming of the region through diplomacy than any Republican will ever have. Everytime Bush travels abroad to mass protests, EVERYWHERE in the world, he embarrasses the country and highlights how truly isolated we are. Even after expressing unflinching support for Israel, Nancy was still greeted warmly in Syria, there were no protests, and I'm sure the talks were productive. Israel's Prime Minister making a few clarifications about his country's position is a one day task to write and no big deal. The important thing is that one of the Democratic leaders of our country has started a dialogue.
Phil at 6:32PM on Apr 4th 2007
3. Help us all, they forgot the veil. This image is enough to make a suicide bomber think twice about the supposed reward of 72 virgins. I can see them now, pleading for good looking camels instead.
Eric Isom at 6:55PM on Apr 4th 2007
4. Nancy Pelosi, neither having the understanding of world politics, especially of the middle east, nor
any historical backdrop as to how the democratic party, by doing absolutely nothing during the Clinton regime, has set up Bush Jr, to deal with the hard decisions! I have worked with middle eastern students for years, and whether Bush was in office or Clinton their prime goal is to take down the United States through assimulation!
The moslems are taught this in all of their mosques that mohammed is going to drop out of heaven into, the capital of the moslem race Jerusalem, during the 21st century, and will be preaching to a whole world of moslems, there is no other choice! This is why you do not see alot of
moslems protesting in the streets of America what is befalling us! Clinton was offered Osama Bin Laden by Sudan and Clinton declined saying "they did not have enough on the man", but his own staff says that was a complete lie! while Osama was tentacalizing the world with money to cause genocide and sectarian violence to scare people to become moslem the world was turning a deaf ear and a blind eye to Ethiopia, Sudan, Mauratania, Phillipines, Bosnia, Russia, etc. where the moslem scourge was taking it's toll on millions of people's lives! If we don't take out the largest
moslem army in the world, Iraq, and bring it to it's knees they will have a near clear path to America through immagrant assimulation, the goal to build another 200 mosques in the U.S. by 2050,
and subvert our resistance to the moslem hoard
by applauding every move the democratic party of
America makes! America's children will be dragged
and burned in the streets, as the moslems have done in countless other nations, and you can hear on their dying lips; "oh this is not a religous war"! The chickens have been counted in the senate now lets fight!
William Cowling at 7:05PM on Apr 4th 2007
5. George W. Bush is a failure. He started this war on false pretense and it has gone for five years with no end in site.
You canot expect anything more from a fraud that has had everything handed to him all of his life. He is where he is based on his family name, and nothing more.
The decider give me a break He has ruined this country around the world and he has sold all of us out based on fraud.
Mr Bush has watched to many television melodramas and thinks he is much more than he really is. He is a very narrow minded and small minded man who somehow thinks he is the Marlboro man out of 1960,2 Marlboro ads. He is the biggest joke to occupy the Whtite House since Herbert Hoover
Ralph Dreifus at 7:19PM on Apr 4th 2007
6.
Very glad you're not the one in charge William. Calling for the ethnic cleansing of all Muslims....hmm sounds a little like a guy from Europe with a funny mustache we're all familiar with.
Peter at 7:17PM on Apr 4th 2007
7. I think Mrs Pelosi has lost toch with reality. She was not elected President of the USA. But to watch her,one would think she walks on water. She doesent seem to care how much damage she causes as long as she has her face if front of the press. We are at warMrs Pelosi. Please open your ears and listen to those who understand what is going on.
Jack at 7:25PM on Apr 4th 2007
8. Bush "is" doing his job. He is doing it very well considering an enormous amount of criticism and liberals going against his every move. I give Bush credit, he sure has had a difficult Presidency thanks to the jihadist liberals who don't work well with anyone other then themselves. We elect this people to work together for this country and the liberals are so definant and so determined to work against this administration that its just horrid./ There is no "United we Stand" anymore and its hurting this country more then people realize. Believe me, these liberals couldn't do any better job then what Bush is doing.Altho to hear them you'd think so. Sad very sad.
Emily at 8:05PM on Apr 4th 2007
9.
Umm, wasn't the "axis of evil" Iraq, Iran, and North Korea? If there was a fourth it wouldn't be an axis anymore.....Better get the talking point guys working on figuring out a cool word equatable with past tyrants that involves a group of four....
Then again I guess North Korea's issue was solved through nice, cheap diplomacy, and we opened up Iraqi oil fields to U.S. compan....err I mean we liberated the people of Iraq, although at the same time making the country far more dangerous to U.S. interests than it was under Saddam. So I guess you could remove one of those and put Syria in there.
Peter at 7:43PM on Apr 4th 2007
10. I served two tours in Vietnam and was there during the wars hottest. Then our congress decided to cut our funding. We were down for two weeks because we had fired our monthly allotment of amo. We were a Helicopter Assult unit, the ones responcible for getting the infantry in and out of the battles.
Cutting the funding is really a way to get a lot of our Military Killed, not giving them the repair parts, Amunition, aircraft, missiles, body armor, clothing, food, the latest and best weapons we can design etc puts them in grave danger.
Americans are quitters, they have not won any war since WWII. Not because of the soldiers not being willing to do their jobs, but from the missguidance of the United Nations, and the cowardly majority of Americans.
The only Americans that have a set of gonads are the volunteers that are fighting out their in Iraq and Afganhistan.
Telling the enemy exactly when we are going to pull out gives them time to set back, rearm and, then when we leave, they will go in and slaughter people just like the North Vietnames did to the South Vietnames when we left.
I would never depend on American for anything. Too many of the people are the poor ignorant complacent hordes. These people will wait until the Muslims, are killing their families, and forcing them to dress, and live as they do, "AS THEY DID BACK IN THE MIDDLE AGES." They will then stand up and scream and blame everyone but themselves.
Pelosi, the Kennedys, the Clintons, and all the rest of the Democratic party power base, along with the media and entertainment world are a disgrace to the Funding Fathers of this Great Republic.
We have the privalege to live here by the Grace of Almighty God. We have strayed away from God and will suffer the same punishment as the Jews when they turned their backs on God 2500 years ago. They are still being punished today.
The Democrats need to stock up on a lot of soap and towels, for they will be washing blood from their hands for centures.
Sam Herndon III at 7:51PM on Apr 4th 2007
11.
For that matter why isn't Saudi Arabia part of the Axis of Evil? Plenty of terrorists have been radicalized in their state-sponsored Madrassa's, and much of the funding for terrorism comes from private donations by Saudi citizens. By not putting a stop to it they are as much a terror supporter as anyone.
Peter at 7:54PM on Apr 4th 2007
12.
Sam, do you hear any of us godless Democrats complaining about Afghanistan? It's a fair question. If we were really all spineless cowards who wanted to see this country fail you'd think we wouldn't support any war anywhere.
So have you heard even one Democrat come out against the war in Afghanistan?
You yourself should be well aware the reason we lost in Vietnam was not because the funding was pulled: The war was unwinnable from the start because an endgame was never planned for. In any military campaign you need clarity of objectives and an endgame which will tell you you've won. In Vietnam we were fighting a passive, defensive war while training the South Vietnamese army to defend itself (After 8+ years of training, they still couldn't do that). That strategy allowed North Vietnam to fight the war on their own terms. The objective for us was simply to keep the South Vietnamese government from being conquered, and without actively trying to destroy the North they could take however much time they needed to make that happen.
Iraq poses a similar problem. Our objective is to defend the Iraqi government until the Iraqi army is trained well enough to defend itself. Therein lies the problem with winning these types of wars, because weak governments build weak armies, and that's what we had in Vietnam and have in Iraq now. So, we could easily just stay there forever waiting for an army that's never going to be ready and piss away more American lives and money, or we can leave. We cannot wipe out the insurgency with our military, we don't have the troops to keep them from displacing and reorganizing whenever we attack. So why keep fighting? To save face?
Peter at 8:15PM on Apr 4th 2007
13. Someone needs to remind Speaker Nancy Pelosi that she ISN'T the President of the United States and she is the one who should "calm down" and focus on her own position.
By the way, that scarf becomes her; perhaps she should stay in the middle east. They would show her just how much value a female has over there which might make her appreciate the US a lot more!
Connie at 8:22PM on Apr 4th 2007
14. YOU DONT HAVE TO TRUST BUSH IN THE MIDDLE EAST, BUT IF YOU TRUST PELOSI MORE, YOU MUST BE TOTALLY BRAIN DEAD !!!
MICHAEL at 8:48PM on Apr 4th 2007
15. I can't believe the stupidity of the posters and the people who voted in AOL's stupid survey. Peeeloshi doing the job of foreigh policy is acceptable to the nutjobs. She is in violation of the constitution and American law which makes her an actual traitor in time of war that should be arrested, tried and shot.
With the retarded dhimmi's in charge we won't have to worry long, we will all be dead.
Scrapiron at 9:05PM on Apr 4th 2007