EYES WIDE...CLOSED

So, let me get this straight. Nancy Pelosi goes to Syria and has a productive dialog with their leaders, reiterating the Bush position, and she is vilified by the right wing as a traitor. Some were even suggesting that she be charged with a crime. What a coincidence though, that since her visit, about a month ago, the incidents of insurgents crossing over into Iraq has dropped significantly. So much so, that now Condoleeza Rice has been sent to hold talks with President Bashar al-Assad and his ambassadors, and there is a possibility of real progress being made. Even though the totally bipartisan Iraq Study Group recommended that the U.S. start talking to Syria, and Iran about what role they could play in stabilizing the Middle East, the Bush administration stubbornly refused to even discuss it. Instead they just kept pursuing their 'stay the course' policy, and while they fiddled, Iraq burned. Doesn't this tell you that when it comes to foreign policy our president and his advisers are flying by the seat of their pants? And it's frightening to think that our leaders are so hard headed that they just dismissed the Baker-Hamilton report, out of hand, because they might have had to admit that mistakes were made in the planning, ( I use that term loosely), and prosecution of this war. So it takes Nancy Pelosi, and moderate republican Dave Hobson, to jump in and try to end the stalemate. Of course, Condi will be hailed as a hero if progress is made here, while Nancy was being called treasonous, and it's just this attitude that is responsible for the fact that this nation has not been able to accomplish much of anything since the scorch and burn republicans first came into power during Bill Clintons term. They are so busy trying to march in lockstep with each other, that common sense has been thrown by the wayside. There is no compromising. You're either with them, or against them. Do you ever wonder where we might be now, if Bush had actually listened to different opinions, of which there were many, instead of just listening to the neocons he's surrounded himself with? What if he'd actually read the reams of info Bill Clinton left him with, like how Al Qaeda and bin Laden were one of the biggest threats facing our national security? I wonder if things might have turned out differently. But we all know Bush doesn't much like reading, so I'm sure he never even saw that little tidbit. What a shame.