December 18, 2006
Dodd Continues Middle East Tour
Chris Dodd, (D), Connecticut's other senator, continuing his tour of the Middle East, now says that he would support a temporary increase in troops in order to secure the country.
"Show me some demonstrable evidence that they're coming together as a people - Shias and Sunnis, sitting down and recognizing that they have an obligation to come together as a people - then I'd be willing to support some additional people if we needed it in order to get the job done."
This is Dodd's third trip to Iraq. The highlight of his trip, of course, is when he'll be visiting Syrian President Bashar Assad.
White House spokesman Tony Snow last week criticized the trips of Dodd and other senators to Syria, saying they were "inappropriate." But afterward, Dodd called Rice and she gave him the questions.
The senator, who is traveling with Sen. John F. Kerry, D-Mass., expected no diplomatic breakthroughs in Damascus. "I don't expect President Assad to say, `Dodd, you're such a great guy, I'm going to do everything you expect me to do,"' he laughed.
The self-deprecating humor is such a nice touch, especially since Dodd and Kerry are over-stepping their bounds by speaking to a head of state that our own administration does not want to have relations with. What is it with these over-inflated gasbags in our Senate who think that they can influence our foreign policy? Only our president is allowed to set foreign policy. But as these two buffoons hope to sit in the Oval Office in a couple of years, rules and regulations be damned.
According to the Eagle-Tribune:
Kerry claims he's not about to criticize U.S. policy while on foreign soil. But he did just that while standing in Cairo, Egypt's capital, last week. Kerry, as reported by the Associated Press, said the Bush administration's refusal to talk to Syria and Iran is "a mistake" and "the kind of policy that's got us into trouble" in the region.
Kerry and his fellow senators may believe they are merely "fact-finding" in the Middle East, and they may get a number of their constituents to believe that. But those with a different agenda in the Middle East, those who like Syria's Assad and Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad seek maximum chaos and the frustration of U.S. interests in a peaceful, democratic Iraq, see the senators differently.
They see the crack in U.S. resolve in the Middle East. The traveling senators give them just the lever they need to pry it open. The senators' message is: Bush may not listen to you - but we will.
Kerry's visit to Syria serves Assad's interests more than those of the United States.
Exactly.
On a more amusing note: as a publicity builder, the tour seems to be a bust for Dodd. I can't find any pictures of him taken during this trip, thus far while his traveling partner has garnered a few.
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