HELPING OUT PALIN #5

This is the fifth in a twenty part series. Click here for an explanation.

#5 How do you feel about French President Nicolas Sarkozy's recent visit to Syria? Do you believe the United States should negotiate with leaders like President Bashar al-Assad?

Come again? We currently have fairly friendly relations with Syria. They'd like them to be even better, and we ought to embrace that. Nancy Pelosi has met with Assad recently as well.

The Bush Administration has blamed Syria for many of the problems it has caused in the region, and Damascus has bent over backwards attempting to sate our demands.

One of the key problems that the Bush Administration has had diplomatically is that they've been too kind to our nominal allies and refused to negotiate with our "enemies". Saudi Arabia, India, Israel, and Pakistan have played us for fools repeatedly, just because their leaders are "good guys". Meanwhile, engagement with Iran and North Korea could have been brought to the table, and might have been willing to work with us more, if we had bothered trying to bargain in good faith.

I'm not even sure what Syria has done lately to piss off the Foreign Policy Mandarins (except for maybe the fevered dreams of the warmongers, who like to imagine that Syria is behind the Iraqi Insurgency), but the suspicion with which we view other nations just because they're supposed to be the "bad guys" is ridiculous.