Letters to the Editor
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Bush's War Update
While all you fascist apologists are foaming at the mouth about Ms. Pelosi having the temerity to actually talk to a middle east "adversary", 24 more American soldiers have died in Bush's Personal War. Happy Easter.
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Congressional fact-finding missions are SOP
This is a question for those of you who think Congress has no business traveling to foreign countries and/or conducting diplomacy: how else are they supposed to get unbiased, reliable information on foreign affairs? Are you seriously suggesting that they are supposed to take this administration's word for what's going on in the world and let it go at that?
Furthermore, nothing described here really approaches subverting any established US policies. The Republican reps who went to Syria- especially Issa- may have approached that by suggesting there may be another way of conducting business besides the policies the administration clings to so desperately, but Pelosi did little more than hold dialogues with high-level Israeli and Syrian officials. I'm not saying she doesn't have political motives, and despite some of the comments here I doubt she is naive about Assad's intentions or about what she can accomplish. I'm just saying she isn't conducting backdoor diplomacy. Examples of that would be Speaker Gingrich: 1. going to China in 1997 and telling them his version of US policy on Taiwan; 2. going to Israel in 1998 and telling them all about US support for an eternally-united Jerusalem under Israeli rule. The second item especially contradicted stated US policy which was that Jerusalem's fate was ultimately an Israeli-Palestinian issue.
Finally, I suggest that those who condemn the scarf because it capitulates to oppressive traditions are overestimating the degree of liberation humanity as a whole has reached. The vast majority of people are genuinely superstitious, believing in deities, demons, and supernatural judgment including unspeakable punishments for those who they perceive as unacceptable. Like a lot of people I think this mentality is primitive and rife with irrational incongruities and hypocrisies. But I also realize we who believe that form a tiny minority and, therefore, I would never think of strolling into some "holy place" and disparaging their customs. Rather than encouraging the "oppressed" to see the folly of their ways, such an action would more likely serve to rally the faithful around their primitive traditions with even more conviction and cause them to condemn me regardless of my more rational views. Besides, there are plenty of folks who'd be willing to argue with you about what the most liberated philosophy is. If you think you're leading the fight against oppression you better hope that an anarchist doesn't take issue with you, or that a tobacco-chewing, nudist, libertarian doesn't show up at your house during a family reunion.
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Takes one to know one
What really confounds me is the criticism that Pelosi is somehow validating the regime of a terror-sponsoring dictator by talking to him. Isolating Cuba for half a century hasn't exactly diminished Castro's stature, has it?
But the real hypocricy is the fact that the Bush administration deals with dictatorships all the time, displaying a weird combination of distasteful realpolitik combined with a breathtaking naivete. Bush spoke approvingly of Putin's soul, and Putin is converting the stillborn Russian democracy into a viciously vindictive authoritarian regime. The Bush administration has done little to challenge Saudi or Pakistani tolerance or support for terrorists.
It seems to me that Pelosi gave nothing away by meeting Assad. Indeed, the Bush administration could have used Pelosi as the "good cop" to their "bad cop" and taken advantage of her visit to open a dialogue with a nation which will have to be dealt with diplomatically if Iraq is ever going to be stabilized. But true to the Bush administration's complete lack of diplomatic instincts, they chose to go for a cheap partisan attack instead.
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Oh Dear Victoria
You write
"I admittedly am not comfortable with fully recognizing non-democratic nations"
There are quite a few of us who have some difficulty seeing the USA as a democratic nation. We note your obsolete first-past-the-post electoral system, your arcane methods of calculating votes and the fact that it takes a great deal of money to get elected.
But we still recognise you. And some of us, myself included, have a deep respect for your culture (Jazz in particular), while disapproving of its more sexist aspects (e.g. botox and unnecessary plastic surgery)
Moreover, our (democratically elected) leaders are quite happy to adapt themselves to your strange public rituals when they visit you, including barbeques in, of all places, Crawford, Texas.
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Good Job Nancy...
Working for peace in the Middle East and a restoration of America's position in the region and the world. Hopefully, you and likeminded people in Congress can thwart the plans of the NeoCons and the Israel Lobby to bring us war with Iran and Syria. After all, American boys are still dying in the first war they brought us under false pretenses.
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Come on, Victoria!
I enjoyed reading the responses to Victoria's letter (including Victoria's own responses). I get the point. I find the attitudes towards women in Islamic cultures to range from horrifying to merely quaint. I do not support any society that forces second-class citizenship on any of their inhabitants. I do not believe in religion, myself, and I recommend to Victoria that she should lighten up a bit.
I have made a number of business trips to Korea. As a member of another repressed minority (left-handed people), I have to struggle with my natural urges in a society that finds my left hand unclean. I go through the motions of holding my business card betweeen the tips of my right thumb and forefingger and leaning forward to present it with my left hand tucked safety behind my back. When I am 'honored' to swap drinking glasses with the host to toss back Soju, I pour and use my right hand. By the way, there is one dirty, little secret my hosts don't know...what I actually use MY RIGHT hand for (please don't tell).
I recently attended a memorial service in a synagogue for a dear friend who had died of cancer, and I wore the yarmulkha handed to me when I went in. No problem, really, except that it was a little small for my head. I came to honor Michael, not an obscure religious ritual.
I think that most contributors agree that it is high time First Lady (and, gee, what a sexist title that is) Mrs. Laura Bush appeared with her husband, the President of the United States (wearing a scarf out of propriety) on a state visit to Syria.
John Potter