If You Must Engage Syria, Do it the Lantos Way -- Or How Congressmen Undermine US Foreign Policy

The attached link is to a good op-ed from our friends at the Washington Institute making the point that Congressmen who go abroad on "factfinding trips" to meet with our enemies risk sending conflicting messages that not only undermine the effectiveness of the Executive Branch's foreign policy, reduce its options and violates the separation of powers, but also undermine the pro-democracy forces in the region that most of us agree we wish to encourage. With the giddily empowered Democratic Congress flexing its muscle and with a Presidential election right around the corner, expect a free-for-all of do-it-yourself Congressional foreign policy trips abroad, many of which will undoubtably give succor to our enemies.

This article also alludes to that regrettable fact that different cultures communicate in different ways, and Arab cultures are very much unlike our own. More so than even the French, in Arab society the concept of lying directly to someone's face in a professional (not personal) dealing is acceptable moral practice (I once heard a political sociologist give this behavior the politically correct moniker, "parallel truths").

If You Must Engage Syria, Do It the Lantos Way--Washington Institute