Hubbub Over Syria

What a hubbub greeted the report by our Eli Lake on that meeting between one of Senator Obama's advisers, Daniel Kurzer, and Foreign Minister Moallem of Syria. Messrs. Kurzer and Moallem met at a parley co-sponsored by the American Bar Association, its British counterpart, and something called the British Syrian Society. The story set the Internet abuzz and prompted one of Senator McCain's surrogates, Mayor Giuliani, to speak at a conference call on behalf of the Arizona senator. In it he said the news was "another indication of the inexperience Senator Obama has in conducting foreign policy and maybe an indication of his inability to do so in a way that would be responsible."

Alas, responsibility is the least of it. Affairs of state must start with a clarity — we started to write "moral clarity," but ordinary, nickel-plated clarity will do — that can distinguish between rogues and states. It's not unlike the difference between American jurists and the regime cronies who pretend to be lawyers in Syria. The fact is that anyone attending that conference was a pawn in a game Syria is playing, even as President al-Assad was preparing for his visit yesterday to Moscow, where he inked a series of military sales with the country that is now seeking to regain what it lost when the Soviet Union collapsed.

The diplomatic elites in Washington will insist that using unofficial American envoys to keep the door open with the Syrians might benefit the region and our interests down the line, particularly if Mr. al-Assad learns that an alliance with Russia can be as dangerous as the one he is now in with Iran. But we take a different view. Mr. Kurtzer's meeting last month in Damascus and the "rule of law" conference he attended are not so much an insurance policy for the Syrian regime as a lifeline. We don't want to suggest that the American Bar Association intended to give the kangaroo courts of Syria the kind of gloss the Syrians sought from the conference. But the road to hell is paved with good intentions, as the saying goes. The fact is that a meeting between western jurists and Syrians posing as jurists leaves the impression that the two sides are one in the same.

The British Syrian Society is another matter altogether. The organization, according to its mission statement, "aims at strengthening relations at all levels between the United Kingdom and Syria; it will encourage dialogue between the peoples of the two countries, and facilitate better understanding and co-operation between them." The organization is co-chaired by Fawaz Akhras, a London-based cardiologist and the father of President al-Assad's wife, Asma al-Assad.

Mr. Kurtzer told Mr. Lake that the exchange between the western lawyers and the Syrians was at times frank and that "None of us thought we were being used or abused. But we will see over time." The McCain campaign figured it out immediately. We have never been among those who have suggested that Senator Obama is hostile to Israel. On the contrary, we've noted the support for Israel in his public statements. The question of judgment, of savvy, when dealing with rogues states, that is another matter, and in respect of Syria, Mr. Obama clearly has a lot to learn.