My former Pentagon colleague David Schenker points me to this excellent photo essay compiled by Martin Kramer, who provides great commentary as well. Sometimes pictures are worth a thousand words.
Now, many American officials convinced themselves that Bashar al-Assad wasn’t such a bad guy; rather, he was the eminently reasonable Western-educated doctor. They argued ferociously in the halls of Congress and in the corridors of the State Department that the problem in U.S.-Syrian relations was simply a lack of dialogue, and that the United States was too shy about doing business with Bashar.
Many of these officials are now retired (Nancy Pelosi not included, alas). Now that Arlen Specter–the proud sojourner of almost two dozen trips to Syria–is no longer working in Washington, perhaps he can bid on this must-go villa to which he was so embarrassingly frequent a visitor? For his sake, let’s just hope Edward Djerejian, the former ambassador to Syria whose positions boarded on apologia, doesn’t start a bidding war.
In all seriousness, the frequency and enthusiasm in which officials once traveled to Damascus to be received at the palace pictured did harm to the American image and its position in the world. Symbolism matters. Assad was conscious of it, as Kramer highlights in his commentary. Perhaps it’s time American officials recognize it as well.
Great post Michael for fingering all those American Arabists both politicians and civil servants lubricated with Arab petro-money. Let's hope we don't see these rats sneaking in the back door of a putative Romney Administration. Let's also hope that you will be giving foreign policy lessons to Mitt and not your colleague Max Boot, whom you well know is someone that Martin Kramer would have gladly failed in Arab Politics 101.
The worst of them all is Arlen Specter the defector. n nI only said this about him and Bella Abzug (not even Chuck Schumer warrents it)–I'm ashamed he's Jewish!
John Kerry is pretending that he never took those 12 or so trips to Damascus where he and Theresa could dine with the Assads while Mrs. Assad relaxed in her Louboutins. Senator Kerry seemed to think it was his mission to bring the good news about Bashar to the West. Senator Kerry seemed to think Israel could cut a deal with Assad: Israel would withdraw from the Golan Heights and in turn Assad would have a cold peace with Israel. It all turned out to be pie in the sky and what has Senator Kerry to say about it these days?
It all turned out to be pie in the sky and what has Senator Kerry to say about it these days? n nEVERYTHING John Kerry has ever advocated has been pie in the sky. Why should this be different?
As I read about Syria I can think of two incidents about American politics from you "yinge yahren." n nOn the first business day of January, 1966 I, then a student at Pace College across the street from New York's City Hall went across the street to see a couple of friends, i.e. people I had supported for the office, getting sworn in as City Council members (one was a woman). There I encountered an old City Hall hand, the great New York Times reporter (they did have them then) Clayton Knolles. I, good Democ-rat that I was lamented John Lindsay's taking office and then opined to him, "Well, at least we won't have that incompetent Wagner dragging us down." Knolles looked at me and said, "Young man, in six months you'll realize just how good a mayor Robert Wagner was." I was a slow learner–it took me a year. n n
A few years later I watched in interview with a Newark politican named Anthony Imperale. He had lost a runoff spot in the mayoral election there to Ken Gibson and the later convicted Hugh Addonizio and said, "I'm up to my neck in manure and they're throwing it at my face–what do I do, DUCK? n nTHIS is the situation in Syria. Does anyone think that the storage of chemical weapons will be any safer in the hands of Huma Abedin's friends at the Moslem Brotherhood than it will be in the hands of Assad? Does anyone really think that whoever replaces Assad in that sick society will be any different than Assad on ANY issue at all? Has everyone supporting Assad's overthrow forgotten the close associations between the Moslem Brotherhood and Hamas? n nUp to their necks in manure and all we see is more being thrown at their collective face!
well, looks like a heck of a lot of syrians didn't want the guy to be their numero uno caudillo. a politico who fills the habitations of his countrymen with their corpses has set a low bar for what would be considered improvement. probably the people who replace Assad will at least be different in the victims they chose to have murdered in their beds. sure, that isn't such a big deal to those outside the situation but likely significant to them. for now this is a slow motion proxy war that is absorbing the attention of border-crossing paladins of the flags and tribes of the umma in the neighborhood. obama couldn't be any more irrelevant to all of this moving forward than he was yesterday or the day before that