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Petraeus Wants to Go to Syria; Bush Administration Says No


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Exclusive: Petraeus Wants to Go to Syria; Bush Administration Says No

 

Petraeus Proposed Visiting Syria But Was Rejected By Bush Administration

 

By JONATHAN KARL

Oct. 30, 2008

 

Apparently Gen. David Petraeus does not agree with the Bush administration that the road to Damascus is a dead end.

 

ABC News has learned, Petraeus proposed visiting Syria shortly after taking over as the top U.S. commander for the Middle East.

 

The idea was swiftly rejected by Bush administration officials at the White House, State Department and the Pentagon.

 

Petraeus, who becomes the commander of U.S. Central Command (Centcom) Friday, had hoped to meet in Damascus with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Petraeus proposed the trip, and senior officials objected, before the covert U.S. strike earlier this week on a target inside Syria's border with Iraq.

 

Officials familiar with Petraeus' thinking on the subject say he wants to engage Syria in part because he believes that U.S. diplomacy can be used to drive a wedge between Syria and Iran. He plans to continue pushing the idea.

 

"When the timing is right, we ought to go in there and have a good discussion with the Syrians," said a Defense Department official close to Petraeus. "It's a meaningful dialogue to have."

 

Petraeus would likely find a more receptive audience for his approach in an Obama administration, given Barack Obama's views on the need to engage America's enemies.

 

The Bush administration's objections to Petraeus' proposed trip don't come as a surprise. The United States barely has any diplomatic relations with Syria. There is a U.S. Embassy in Damascus, but there has been no ambassador there since 2005. The last senior U.S. official to visit Syria was Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi in April 2007, a trip the White House strongly opposed. At the time, President Bush said, "Sending delegations hasn't worked. It's just simply been counterproductive."

 

When she was in Syria, Pelosi said the "road to Damascus is the road to peace."

 

At the time, National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe shot back: "Unfortunately, that road is lined with the victims of Hamas and Hezbollah, and the victims of terrorists who cross from Syria into Iraq. It's lined with the victims in Lebanon, who are trying to fight for democracy there. It's lined with human rights activists trying for freedom and democracy in Syria."

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Guest Aloysius
whats colon pow say?
He says you're full of shit.

 

Meanwhile, Israel is engaging in indirect negotiations with the Syrians. As of now, Turkey is mediating the discussions, but it's possible that the Obama-Petraeus strategy will result in us leading those talks.

 

I think that's a good thing. Does anyone here disagree?

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Guest Aloysius

Actually, Kissinger called for secretary-level talks without preconditions.

 

But we probably shouldn't be too concerned about dealing with Ahmadinejad. He's not the power-broker when it comes to national security policy; the Ayatollah and his close advisers (especially Ali Larijani) are the people we should be talking to.

 

Ahmadinejad's also been in the news recently for pulling a Mariah Carey. If he doesn't get his act together, he could lose much of his power in the parliamentary elections next year.

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Guest Aloysius
ABC News has learned, Petraeus proposed visiting Syria shortly after taking over as the top U.S. commander for the Middle East.

 

The idea was swiftly rejected by Bush administration officials at the White House, State Department and the Pentagon.

Syria expert Joshua Landis claims that Vice President Cheney was the one who rebuffed Petraeus's proposal.

 

Hopefully, further reporting will discover whether people at State and DoD actually expressed opposition to the plan. I'm particularly interested in what Robert Gates' opinion was, considering that he may continue on as SecDef for the first year or so of Obama's presidency.

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Syria expert Joshua Landis claims that Vice President Cheney was the one who rebuffed Petraeus's proposal.

Was there ever any real doubt? icon_e_wink.gif

 

Good grief get these two out the door. Way to not listen to an expert who is in the middle of the situation, had success in other areas where he's made the call. Awesome.

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Syria expert Joshua Landis claims that Vice President Cheney was the one who rebuffed Petraeus's proposal.

Was there ever any real doubt? icon_e_wink.gif

 

Good grief get these two out the door. Way to not listen to an expert who is in the middle of the situation, had success in other areas where he's made the call. Awesome.

 

But will Obama follow Petraeus' recommendations?

 

He says no FWIW.

WSS

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Obama will give you strawberry icecream because he knows every one of you who don't like vanilla !

 

Obama will go back in history and stop Pearl Harbor and Katrina and 9/11 and every tornado that has ever

happened on US shores from happening !

 

He'll make the sun shine and make tropical temps for all those he knows who don't like snow, even if they live in Minnesota or Main or Alaska !

 

He will zap Hersey bars to make them non-fattening with his magic twanger !

 

He will make it snow 7' in southern climates for every person he knows that doesn't like the heat!

 

Oh, Bless OsamaObama for all his good works that he has never done !

 

(plus, he'll toss in the unlimited murder of millions of unborn children just for anti-children libs !)

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Guest Aloysius

Interesting interview in Foreign Policy of Syrian Ambassador to the US Imad Moustapha:

FP: Would you say that, at this point, the Syrian government is finished negotiating with the Bush administration?

 

IM: We had resigned ourselves to this fact at least a couple of years ago. We started to work diligently with congressional leaders from both sides of the aisle, telling each side in a very clear way, “Look, Syria is not your enemy.” We believe that once there will be a new administration, there is an ample chance to engage between Syria and the United States.

 

However, to our big surprise, only last month in New York in September, while we were attending the U.N. General Assembly meetings, [u.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza] Rice out of the blue requested a meeting with our foreign minister. So we sat with her, and the meeting was pleasant. Two days later, this meeting was followed with an extensive, in-depth meeting with Assistant Secretary of State David Welch. Every issue was discussed, and in general the overwhelming tone of the meeting was very positive. He told us clearly that the United States was reevaluating its policies towards Syria. We thought, “Things [are] finally starting to move in the right direction.”

 

And suddenly, this [raid in eastern Syria] happens. I don’t believe the guys from the State Department were actually deceiving us. I believe they genuinely wanted to engage diplomatically and politically with Syria. We believe that other powers within the administration were upset with these meetings and they did this exactly to undermine the whole new atmosphere.

 

FP: U.S. presidential hopeful Barack Obama says that he would be willing to sit down with states that are now considered enemies of the United States. Is that encouraging to you?

 

IM: I have reason to believe that even if [senator John] McCain becomes president of the United States, he will also be inclined to sit and talk with Syria. I can tell you this on the record: Senator Joe Lieberman, who is supposed to be very close to McCain, has said this explicitly and very clearly to me personally.

 

FP: There were news reports about negotiations between Syria and Israel for a while, but they seemed to have stopped. Is the Syrian-Israeli peace track still active?

 

IM: The only reason [the talks] stopped is the domestic issues in Israel. We had three rounds of talks, and they were very good and very promising. But then [Prime Minister] Ehud Olmert resigned, and there were talks about forming a new cabinet. The natural thing is that the peace talks will stop until a new cabinet is formed in Israel. And the Turks who are negotiating and mediating between us and the Israelis have told us that once a new government is installed [in Jerusalem], they will immediately resume their role as a broker of peace between us and the Israelis. They will contact the Israelis and work on convening a fourth round of talks.

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Guest Aloysius
'Syria will restrain Hezbollah and Hamas if Obama shifts U.S. policy'

 

By Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondent

 

Syria would be prepared to restrain the militant activities of Hezbollah and Hamas if a U.S. administration led by President-elect Barack Obama shifts its policy toward Damascus, according to a state analyst in Damascus.

 

In an article published on Friday on the Asia Times Web site, Syrian analyst Sami Mubayed called on Obama to endorse the renewed peace talks with Israel to ensure their success.

 

Mubayed, whose analyses are considered the official standpoint of the Syrian government, urged Obama to "normalize" relations between Washington and Damascus.

 

Such "normalization" of ties would include dispatching a new U.S. ambassador to Damascus, the first since the deterioration of the states' ties in 2005.

 

Syria would also demand that the economic sanctions against it be dropped, a change in Western rhetoric toward Damascus and compensation for the recent deadly U.S. air strike in which eight Syrians were killed.

 

Damascus also seeks a further role in matters regarding Iraq. "Obama must recognize that no problem can be solved in the Middle East without Syria," Mubayed wrote.

 

In exchange for U.S. implementation of these demands, Syria would be ready to use its weight in the region against the militant activities of Hezbollah and Hamas, and would work in tandem with Western powers to find a solution to the Iranian nuclear issue.

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Obama will give you strawberry icecream because he knows every one of you who don't like vanilla !

 

Obama will go back in history and stop Pearl Harbor and Katrina and 9/11 and every tornado that has ever

happened on US shores from happening !

 

He'll make the sun shine and make tropical temps for all those he knows who don't like snow, even if they live in Minnesota or Main or Alaska !

 

He will zap Hersey bars to make them non-fattening with his magic twanger !

 

He will make it snow 7' in southern climates for every person he knows that doesn't like the heat!

 

Oh, Bless OsamaObama for all his good works that he has never done !

 

(plus, he'll toss in the unlimited murder of millions of unborn children just for anti-children libs !)

 

his administration will rewrite history books like the clintons wackos did

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