How Wrong Can You Get?

By Peggy Shapiro

These photos tell the story of misguided, naïve, and dangerously gullible U.S. representatives, who believed they were reasoning with Syria's tyrant Bashar Assad.

Zbigniew Brzezinski (Back Right) and Syria's Bashar Assad (Back Left) February 15, 2008

Brzezinski, "The U.S. and Syria have a shared interest in stability in the region"

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Syria's President Bashar Assad April 4, 2007

Pelosi, "Syria is willing to resume peace talks with Israel."

Jimmy Carter and Syria's President Bashar Assad April 19, 2008

Carter: "In all my conversations with President Assad, whom I've known since he was a college student, I was impressed with [his] eagerness to complete the agreement on the Golan Heights. President Bashar Assad is eager to restart negotiations with Israel... "

What was Assad doing while his good American friends were engaging him in dialogues? What was going on behind those ornate walls while the well-meaning were eliciting the tyrant's point of view and hoping that American understanding will talk him out of supporting terrorism?

Satellite image by DigitalGlobe, 05 Aug 2007, of a suspected nuclear reactor site in Syria

Syria was covertly building a nuclear reactor with clandestine North Korean assistance.

Will there be any consequence to their political standing for getting so much so wrong? Should an American president be equally disposed to dialogue with deceiving dictators, the consequences may be disastrous for the Middle East and the world.