Our Provisional Government

A Congressional delegation headed by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is to arrive in Damascus tomorrow. With the Executive under the control of George W. Bush and his veto power, it is unclear what the delegation can hope to bring back that would change anything.... It is at least a thumb in the eye for the President, and perhaps the first signs of a materializing provisional government in Washington. The visit follows that of Senator John Kerry a few months ago. But apart from the question of bringing back something, what could they possibly offer that regime?

Make that, Our Provisional State Department

Update: Half of Congress is in the Middle East for the Easter recess. Senator John McCain and Lindsay Graham are in Baghdad, demonstrating how "safe" the city is (provided you travel with a 50-man platoon, armed to the teeth).

Speaker Pelosi was in Jerusalem Saturday. According to L'Orient-Le Jour, Pelosi has volunteered to deliver any message Ohlmert might have for Assad. On Monday, the Speaker goes to Lebanon for talks with Prime Minister Fuad Siniora. She then goes to Saudi Arabia. Apparently, she is seeking the release of the three Israeli soldiers kidnapped by Hezbollah (2) and Palestinian groups (1)last summer.

Strangely, Pelosi's visit follow that of Republican Congressmen Frank Wolf, Joseph Pitts and Robert Aderholt. They met with President Assad, Syrian businessmen, religious officials and opposition figure Riad Seif. The Republicans claimed they discussed "sealing" the Syrian border with Iraq. But there is certainly more to it than that.

Uncle!

Update 2 March 07: Iran has not accepted. Moreover, it looks like the US plans on representation at the ambassadorial level, thus making it highly unlikely that the Iranian negotiator who counts, Ali Larijani, will not show up for this apparent low-level conference.

Well, George Bush is finally desperate enough to negotiate with Syria and Iran in a regional conference on Iraq security. It only took 100,000+ civilian dead, probably half a million wounded, US 3000 KIAs and another 20,000 severely wounded, 3 million refugees and a trillion dollars.

People like us could have produced tremendous savings, but our advice was ignored. Meanwhile, the French and the Russians have been calling for an international conference since late 2003. But some geostrategists have been saying it's now too late to do anything that doesn't hand victory to the jihadis, with further destabilization in the Middle East.

War with Iran by the Back Door

You would think that Bush and Cheney would be seized by reality by now but that is a vain hope. This delusional pair actually believe that they can persuade Sunni Arab states into a Shi'ite-Sunni war. God help us.

Josh Landis writes:

Israel and the US are hoping to shore up support from their friends in order to better avoid negotiating with their enemies: Syria and Iran. Thus it is significant that both Jordan and Egypt are insisting on wider negotiations, despite Washington's efforts to draft them into a Shiite-Sunni war.

A Modest Agenda

The cat's out of the bag. The Democrats seem have bought wholesale the notion of redeploying into super-bases in Iraq or in Kuwait. Redeployment apparently means "out of harm's way". There will be no pullout. I even read that Howard Dean said the US has to stay in Iraq to prevent a Turkish invasion of Kurdistan.

Truth be told, a pullout from Iraq was not expected, for, as Mr. Luizard pointed out, a pullout would strengthen radical Islam with all the attendant regional upshots.

So, the Democratic Congress is not going to change the President's tax giveaways to the hyper-wealthy, not going to leave the Iraqi theater and not going to impeach Bush and Cheney. But they are going to prevent John Bolton's confirmation as Ambassador to the United Nations and to boycott some of Bush's judicial nominees.