Pelosi Tours Syria, Rebuffs Criticism
President Bush Blasts Visit; Speaker Counters That He Didn't Criticize Republican Visitors
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Pelosi In Syria
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is in Syria and sending a strong message home: The isolation of Syria has failed, and so has the President's war policy. Democrats want change. Wyatt Andrews reports.
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Bush Vs. Congress
The Iraq war has cost taxpayers about $378 billion. At the heart of the latest battle is how much more money will be spent and who will decide when to bring the troops home. Bill Plante reports.
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Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem, right, welcomes House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at the Damascus International Airport, April 3, 2007. (AFP/Getty)
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President Bush speaking to the media at the White House, April 3, 2007. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
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Israeli soldiers argue with a Palestinian man during a protest against checkpoints at the Beit Fourik roadblock, one of several Israeli checkpoints leading to the West Bank city of Nablus, April 2, 2007, as security was tightened in advance of Passover. (AP)
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President George W. Bush criticized the visit, saying it sends mixed signals to Damascus.
Pelosi's visit was a new high-profile challenge to Bush by the majority Democrats in Congress, who are taking a more assertive role in influencing policy in the Middle East and the Iraq war.
The United States accuses Syria of interfering in Lebanon, allowing Iraqi Sunni insurgents to operate from its territory and sponsoring terrorism for its backing of the Hamas and Hezbollah militant groups, charges Syria denies.
The Bush administration has resisted calls to open direct talks with Damascus to convince it to help ease the crisis in Iraq and bring progress in the peace process with Israel.
Soon after Pelosi's arrival in Damascus, Bush denounced the visit.
"A lot of people have gone to see President Assad ... and yet we haven't seen action. He hasn't responded," he told reporters at a Rose Garden news conference. "Sending delegations doesn't work. It's simply been counterproductive."
He said Assad had not reined in Hamas and Hezbollah and has acted to destabilize the democratically elected government of Lebanon.
Pelosi, a California Democrat, made no comment on Bush's remarks, instead heading from the airport to Damascus' historic Old City for a tour to meet Syrians face-to-face. She is to meet Assad on Wednesday.
Draping a flowered scarf over her hair and donning a black abaya robe, Pelosi visited the 8th Century Omayyad Mosque, shaking hands with Syrian women inside and watching men in a religion class sitting cross-legged on the floor.
She stopped at an elaborate tomb inside the mosque said to contain the head of John the Baptist and made the sign of the cross in front of the tomb. About 10 percent of Syria's 18 million people are Christian.
At the nearby outdoor Bazouriyeh market, Syrians crowded around her, offered her dried figs and nuts and chatted with her. She strolled past shops selling olive oil soaps, spices and herbs, and at one point bought some coconut sweets and eyed jewelry and carpets.
The tour sought to highlight the Democrats' stark differences with the Bush administration's policy of shunning Damascus, which they have depicted as a failure.
In other developments:
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See all 316 CommentsBy 'a lot of people' do you mean your little Klingon sidekick, Condi??
Bush's idea of diplomacy is calling world leaders bad names.
Bush is an idiot, and if you voted for him you are an idiot.
Sorry for your luck!
So what do you suggest, that we declare war on all the middle east countries we have dissagrements with? Should we just nuke them all and get it over with? Talking does not mean we'd agree to give in to thier wishes. Dialog is always better than isolation as a policy.
Second, Bush did not say anything about the Reps. going over there becuase they are not in a position of power. Pelosi is.
Posted by thefarmer77 at 12:29 PM : Apr 03, 2007
No, just like he wants to paint the Gonzales scandal as a Democratic smear--bush rarely has anything to say of his fellow Republicans (who also call for Gonzales's ouster) because he is a Partisan hack as well as a liar, war criminal and all around sleazy, impotent chicken hawk.
Posted by msindahouse at 12:15 PM : Apr 03,
Bush has been peeing down your back (and in your mouths and everywhere else) for the past 6 years--but people like you love it, because he claims the showers are "golden" and you silly cons know you love your "gold"--any way you can get it.
Posted by drinuk at 12:26 PM : Apr 03, 2007
..and yet we went after Iraq and destroyed our regional and international good will and credibility. Maybe...we better clean up the mess there and in Afghanistan first...since the Army is stretched sooo thin we are reduced to enlisting 42 year olds, and felons and making them overstay their rotations. Or is it for cons, any war with anyone, will do?
Posted by notblue
Apparently you did miss something, sport. Nancy Pelosi is second in line for the most powerful job on the planet. And, I might add, the only one of the three with a brain.
If McCain can go to Iraq, the Speaker of the House can certainly go anywhere whe pleases.
"They will be responsible for giving the enemy an exit date, that kind of thing used to be called treason."
Posted by notblue
No... but lying to Congress and the American people to take the country into an illegal war is most definitely an act of treason. Further, outing a covert CIA agent in the time of war is very much an act of treason, and using the Justice department to obstruct justice may very well be an act of treason.
--- She's third in line and the brain part remains to be seen.
If McCain can go to Iraq, the Speaker of the House can certainly go anywhere whe pleases.
--- She didn't go to Iraq, she went to Syria to negotiate peace between Syria and Isreal. Cleary a job of the State Department, not Congress. Even if it was her job, the President, whether you agree with him or not, directed her not to go. She is giving Syria the impression that she has the right to speak for the foreign policies of the White House.
Speaker Pelosi is doing the right thing.
Nice metaphor. And it suits the circumstances, as the Bush administration persists in a course of action that is generating massive anti-US hatred, then warns of the dangers of terrorism. Did you know that Israeli intelligence has told us that the Iraq war has generated 10,000 new recruits for Al Qaeda alone, and that world-wide 5 times as many people are now actively involved in anti-American terrorist groups due to this misguided, illegal war?
"These mideast thugs only understand one language and that's violence. Talk is as cheap as life in countries like Syria, Iraq, Iran, etc. President Bush understands that and deals with it accordingly."
On what basis do you make this statement? Who has tried negotiation? Not this administration. Bush has shown that he, in fact, is the one who only understands violence, and treats life more cheaply than any terrorist. Do you realize that between him and his father, the US has killed best part of a million Iraqis? And we have done it in a combined total of about 5 years in two wars. It took Saddam Hussein (whom the US originally brought to power and subsequently armed and supported) 20+ years to kill 1/10th as many. Who's the greater villain?
"Those who believe that peace will be achieved through conciliation need only re-visit 1939 Germany. Half of Europe was "given away" in hopes of peace and we all know how that turned out."
The comparison does not stand, although Bushies persist in using it in their endless attempt to silence knowledge and thought with blind fear. In this case, the US is the one using every means in its power to impose its will on smaller, weaker, countries so as to be able to rape them of their resources. We are the Nazi Germany of the equation, not Syria, Iraq or Iran. It's to our further shame that, unlike the Nazis, we can't even prosecute a war in a competent fashion.
Posted by diverinnl at 01:00 PM : Apr 03, 2007
She should this White House has no foreign policy beyond what benefits thier bank accounts. You idiots need to wake up....
Should Nancy Pelosi be able to pick and choose which parts of the Constitution apply to her? If so, you can't fault Bush for doing the same.
Libs are nothing but intellectually dishonest little piles of dog squeeze.
Posted by diverinnl
TRY AGAIN GENIUS... YOU CAN DO THIS ONE ON YOUR STUBBY LITTLE FINGERS.
IF SOMETHING HAPPENS TO BUSH, CHENEY IS FIRST IN LINE, AND WHO IS SECOND IN LINE??
Posted by diverinnl at 01:10 PM : Apr 03, 2007
You're wrong! He did all that to the interns and other females. He just ignored the middle east and terrorism (unless you count Waco - thanks for keeping us all safe, Janet.) Endeavor to be accurate! LOL
Posted by diverinnl at 01:10 PM : Apr 03, 2007"
Diverinnl, you need to stop making baseless conclusions. It so happens that I am not a liberal, and have never visited moveon.org.
Clinton did not appease or coddle; you are either ignorant or lying. He made measured, targeted military strikes against specific targets in response for specific attacks, based on US knowledge of who was behind the attacks. This is an intelligent and effective strategy, unlike lying to justify attacking a country with no involvement in attacking us and subsequently, butchering tens of thousands of innocent people.
He also warned the incoming Bush administration specifically that Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda were the greatest terror danger to the US, and that plans existed to attack US targets (specifically named potential targets included the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, the White House and the Sears Tower) with jetliners.
It took either the total incompetence or the willing complicity of the Bush administration to allow this to happen. Given that Bush & Co have been in bed with the House of Saud for over half a century, that 15 of the 19 terrorists were Saudis, that the Bin Laden family was spirited out of the country immediately after 9/11, and that standard procedures for responding to hijackings (shootdown orders, etc.) were either changed in the weeks preceding weeks 9/11 or not followed at all (no fighters scrambled from Andrews in the hour after the Towers were struck), I lean toward believing that Bush & Co allowed or encouraged the attacks to advance their own agenda. (This agenda happened to include pre-existing plans to attack Iraq, by the way.) I frankly don't believe that 19 Arabs with box cutters could make NORAD stand down, which is apparently what Bush claims happened.
The NeoCons have certainly used 9/11 to justify every impingement on our liberties and those of other countries ever since. That in itself is despicable, and an insult to those who died.
She reminds me of Dean Wormer's wife from Animal House. MMMMmmmmmmm..... :)
You are an egotistic jerk of the first order. She may very well be second for assumption of power but she is third in position.
It's a semantics anyway. She has no authority to do what she's doing.
Yeah, he's got a milk factory and a Chinese embassy on his "score" card. Bravo! As for actual terrorists.........nope. Can't think of one he got. Sorry. But hey, I hear he's looking for a new intern to sit on his lap and take "dic"tation. Interested???
http://www.cnn.com/US/9808/20/us.strikes.01/
Or this excerpt from the 9/11 report which is not very flattering to Clinton by any means, but shows that he was very far from ignoring terrorism:
http://www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report_Ch4.htm
Bush was on vacation the whole month before 9/11. Who was ignoring the issue when it mattered?
Reps. Frank Wolf, Joe Pitts and Robert Aderholt all men, go to Syria and that is OK. But it's not OK for Nancy Pelosi, a woman and Democrat to go?? Where is the logic here and what exactly is the mixed signal?? The fact that the 2 different groups are man vs. woman or Rep vs. Dem??
Besides, it is clear that the diplomacy of Bush, which consists of threats, sanctions and no reconition is NOT WORKING. Time to try something different. I mean, God forbid that progress is made towards peaceful resolution of the always turbulent middle east.
You are an egotistic jerk of the first order. She may very well be second for assumption of power but she is third in position.
It's a semantics anyway. She has no authority to do what she's doing.
Posted by diverinnl
HMMMMM... NAME-CALLING.
YOU MUST BE A REPUBLICAN!!
HEY!!!
Don't bring species into this
See the links I just posted.
"But hey, I hear he's looking for a new intern to sit on his lap and take "dic"tation. Interested???
Posted by us_infidel at 01:28 PM : Apr 03, 2007"
Now there is debate taken to a high level, US_Infidel. I can't say I'd really be interested; frankly, I'm already a little sore from the national a$$-f*cking we've all been taking from the Bush administration for 6 years now.
"I still wouldn't mind giving old Nancy a "pearl necklace" for Mother's Day. I think she's HOT! :) (in a MILF sort of way)
She reminds me of Dean Wormer's wife from Animal House. MMMMmmmmmmm..... :)
Posted by us_infidel at 01:24 PM : Apr 03, 2007"
She does kind of have that look about her, doesn't she? I'd certainly rather give here a pearlie than Hillary. I'd be afraid to go near that beartrap of a mouth with Jimi Jr.
YOU MUST BE A REPUBLICAN!!"
Posted by dallison7 at 01:32 PM : Apr 03, 2007
---- As are you apparently!
"TRY AGAIN GENIUS... YOU CAN DO THIS ONE ON YOUR STUBBY LITTLE FINGERS."
Posted by dallison7
"Bush is an idiot, and if you voted for him you are an idiot."
Posted by dallison7 at 12:01 PM : Apr 03, 2007
Wake up fools, there's no military solution to a guerrilla war within a religious civil war within an anti-occupation war where the insurgents have the hearts and minds of the public. Vietnam taught us most of that;some weren't taking notes.
HEY!!!
Don't bring species into this
Posted by Klingon69
LOL!!
Sorry, didn't mena to offend you.
Posted by dallison7 at 12:01 PM : Apr 03, 2007
Posted by diverinnl
Thank you for reposting this... it needed to be said again.
Not communicating makes resolution of issues more difficult. How does one side know when the other is adjusting its view?
Communication creates another possibility for the resolution of an issue.
From long ago.
Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.
Sun-tzu
Chinese general & military strategist (~400 BC)
Probably b/c they aren't meeting with terrorists. I guess you haven't been keeping up with current events. You see, Syria is a TERRORIST country. Ever hear of Hezbollah? Hamas? They allow insurgents across their borders to kill Americans in Iraq.
The administration HAS a policy for dealing with Syria. Your "Queen Bee" Air Pelosi is over there undermining this administration.
I know you wouldn't have minded if Gingrich had gone over to undermine Clinton. Oh, I forgot.....Clinton wasn't doing anything.....there was nothing to undermine.
The problem is that an unauthorized member of congress is trying to negotiate a treaty with a foreign country. The second problem is that it is a woman. The middle-eastern nations as a rule, hold women in a subservient position, without rights or question. Being a woman, how is she expected to do this in a country where women are second-class citizens.
Posted by jimibear at 01:35 PM : Apr 03, 2007
LOL.....I'd have to chance it!!! There's just something about her that get's my neocon glands going. She has a set of orbs that just won't quit.
Perhaps she would let me teach her MY interpretation of "bipartisan cooperation"! :)
I guess you can't read. From the article:
"...referring to the Sunday meeting of Reps. Frank Wolf, Joe Pitts and Robert Aderholt with Assad in Damascus."
If Assad is a terrorist as you say then these Republican Reps. are ALSO meeting with a terrorist.
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