US not trying to stop an Israeli/Syrian war

The bottom line is that the Bush administration sees politics as an extension of war by other means.

The gist of the Israeli message in its recent talks with United States Defense Secretary Robert Gates is that Syria is preparing for a military confrontation with Israel.

The U.S. message to Israel on Syria, in contrast, remained unchanged: Israel should at present avoid diplomatic talks with Damascus because President Bashar Assad plans on using such talks to extricate Syria from its isolation. Israeli talks with Damascus would be a knife in the back of the government of Fouad Siniora in Lebanon.

No tangible evidence exists, Israel told the U.S., that Damascus is planning an all-out war with Israel. But it is believed that Damascus has concluded that Israel might respond to various Syrian actions and that would be the cause of a full-blown confrontation."

I don't know what this means, but I find myself remembering that the Bush administration very publicly stopped the Israeli/Syrian initiative in February.

The United States demanded that Israel desist from even exploratory contacts with Syria, of the sort that would test whether Damascus is serious in its declared intentions to hold peace talks with Israel.

In meetings with Israeli officials recently, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was forceful in expressing Washington's view on the matter.

The Bush administration seems dead set on removing "the red phone" between the Israelis and Syrians making a conflict far more likely.

This idea of "not talking to our enemies" flies in the face of the modern history of global relations. If this Bush policy had a track record of success, then the break with conventional wisdom would at least be arguable.