Submitted by Nolan Nelson, Apr 6, 2007 12:56

Pelosi's trip implements the harmful Baker/Hamilton Commission recommendation for talks without preconditions. Diplomacy toward a terrorist state cannot involve conflict resolution, or "just talk to them" methods, because an independent Syria must no longer submit to Western logics and definitions of meaningful interactions. This adversary, and those African/Oriental /Asian cultures we seek as allies, contend in worlds where assassination, terrorism and genocide dominate political agendas.

The State Department designates Syria a terrorist state. A UN war crimes tribunal currently investigates Assad's link to assassination of Lebanon Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Syria provides safe havens and conduits for foreign fighters killing innocent civilians and our soldiers in Iraq. Sponsorship of Hammas and Hezbollah provides Syria tools to disrupt Lebanon's struggle towards democracy, and to seek Israel's extinction. For these and other behaviors Syria earns US containment through isolation. Policies effectively applied against Libya, which returns to the international community as it renounces terrorism and WMD's.

Broadly representative government provides the antidote to infection by terrorist heresies, and brings final victory in the Global War on Terror. However, choosing representative government, over alliances with malevolent factions, requires extraordinary personal risks. Deliberations favoring such risks demand allies who consistently reject and isolate expressions of totalitarian force.

Polosi/Assad photo ops and sound bites damage our reliability by seeming to accommodate terrorism and criminality within the spectrum of international propriety. Governments must then reluctantly accommodate those elements within their cultures.

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