Lack of a Clear Policy

Isolate Syria and engage Iran or vice-versa? The Bush government can't make up its mind. Certainly their disaray is handing the Democrats a foreign policy gift. Farid from the US favored Syrian opposition sent the following item which shows where he's coming from. Meanwhile Israel has a golden opportunity to go for a Syrian peace but does the Prime Minister have the courage to take the risky leap into the abys? I doubt it. Olmert's main concern is survival.

Farid writes: No policy towards Syria created a vacuum that the Democrats in Congress have taken advantage of by demonstrating a capacity not to be fence-sitters.

The blame falls squarely on a timid US-Syria policy that in the beginning made sense as the US was plowing its way in Iraq. But soon thereafter, the US learned that the Syrian porous borders were used, in conjunction with the support of the Syrian Assad regime, to wreak havoc in Iraq with the aim of destabilizing a country on the verge of a historic transformation. Yet, the US did nothing more than isolate Syria in the hope it can change its behavior. Three years later and over three thousands US deaths in Iraq, the US still has no policy on Syria, which created the opportunity for the Democrats to craft one.

The US policy towards Iran suffers from the same malaise and that is why the Democrats, once again, announced a willingness to sit with Ahmadinajead of Iran.