Pelosi for Prez

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has recently come under heavy, heated fire from the White House and Senate conservatives after defying President Bush's wishes to make a stop to speak with the leaders of Syria.

She was the highest ranking American official to meet with their president in the last 12 years. What she did, essentially, was to open up a dialogue with Syria about the war on terror and to assess where their nation stood.

There have been accusation flying back and forth that Pelosi is following her own foreign policy and is trying to act as though she were President and that she's undermining our current foreign policy. However, If anyone has been following exactly how we have been handling our foreign policy for the last 6 or 7 years, I don't know how you can see this as a bad thing.

There have also been questions of whether Pelosi thinks that she can do the part of America's top diplomat better than Condoleeza Rice. The answer to that is simple: YES.

You don't make progress in a region by dramatically, and broadly associating an entire nation as a member of the "Axis of Evil", as though it were part some real life ring of super villains. This administration has taken no time to understand the religious, cultural and historical dynamics of an ancient region and peoples.

She's simply following the recommendations of the 9/11 commission that Bush so arrogantly decided to ignore. He doesn't listen to advisers, or facts by that matter (including evidence from Ambassador Joseph Wilson that contradict the administrations exaggeration of the threat from Iraq. His administration thanked Wilson for his finding that no hazardous material were indeed being shipped from Africa to Iraq, by exposing Wilson's wife's identify as a covert CIA operative.)

Also, How are we supposed to stop terrorism and improve the status of the region if we refuse to even speak to key players that are intricately involved there? It makes absolutely no sense! Intelligence and diplomacy are things extinct in this current administration, and Nancy Pelosi is trying to rebuild our tattered global reputation.

We've been told over and over again that Syria is an Evil nation, supporting terrorist activities and are fighters against freedom and liberty. These repugnant, condescending, propagandist oversimplifications are an insult to American intelligence and a feeble cover for a much more complicated situation.

Syrian leaders have recognized the legitimacy of Israel as a nation, a very important fact. Their leaders want relations with the United States and it's an incredible valuable sentiment. With skilled negotiation, diplomacy, pressure and maneuvering Syria can become an asset in this absurd war. Why would we shun an embattled nation in the region who wants to come to the table?? It seems Bush doesn't want to win his own war... or perhaps it's a different war he's fighting... the one to control information, the war of clever PR campaign designed to hide his true purpose? We certainly know that Israel is the king of PR manipulation of conflicts in which they share just as much of the blame for violence and human rights violations...

But again, I digress.

I think that fact that Pelosi is being criticized for not falling in line behind the President is a very positive thing. It's exactly what needs to be done! Why should a new leader, elected by a nation overwhelmingly dissatisfied and scared by 6-years of failed foreign policy going to continue to be a lapdog to the administration? She's bearing her teeth! And we need to stand behind her.

Pelosi was not alone on her supposedly "renegade mission" to defy the President. Along with fellow democrats she was accompanied by a delegation of congressional Republican representatives who also have the best interests of the nation and the world at heart.

So I applaud Pelosi for doing what she can in an incredibly hostile environment to get America back on the track to peace and for doing her part to help mend this atrocity.