Rice makes surprise visit to Lebanon

The laughs just keep coming. This is from CNN.Com:

BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made an unannounced stop in Beirut on Monday to meet with Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora about the crisis in the Middle East.

"Thank you for your courage and steadfastness," Rice said upon meeting Siniora, according to The Associated Press.

The premier kissed her on both cheeks and said Lebanon is hoping to "put an end to the war being inflicted on Lebanon," the AP reported.

After meeting for more than an hour, Rice and Siniora left without speaking to reporters, the AP reported. Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh emerged and told the press, "Nothing to say," according to AP.

WOW! Secretary of State Condi Rice made a surprise visit to Lebanon! Were you surprised?

NOT!

As I've said in my previous post here, Condi Rice's Mid-East "peace trip" is a waste of jet fuel. First, she takes off on this trip a week after Israel has been bombing the crap out of southern Lebanon--if the Bush administration was serious about stopping this latest war, Condi Rice should have been sent out to the Middle East the day after Israel started their bombing campaign. Second, we get this talk of a "surprise" visit to Lebanon. Surprise visit? Southern Lebanon is where all the fighting is taking place. I would expect Rice to meet with Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora since the fighting is taking place in his country. Of course, all this talk about an "unannounced" trip to Lebanon by Rice makes pretty headline stories in the corporate media about how the Bush administration is doing all it can to solve this latest crisis--we're talking more PR spin here. The real surprise would have been Rice going to Syria:

Rice did not plan to meet with Hezbollah or with Syrian leaders during her trip.

Although Syria is thought to hold much influence with Hezbollah, the Bush administration has argued that direct talks with Syria would be pointless.

If the Bush administration was serious about stopping this war, Condi Rice could have gone to Syria for direct talks. But that's not going to happen. If anything, the Bush administration blames Syria for supporting Hezbollah terrorists. Consider this story Bush slams Syria, Iran over Hezbollah:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush on Saturday slammed Syrian and Iranian support for Hezbollah and underscored U.S. support for the Israeli reaction to the provocations by the Shiite guerrillas in Lebanon.

"For many years, Syria has been a primary sponsor of Hezbollah and it has helped provide Hezbollah with shipments of Iranian-made weapons," Bush said in his weekly radio address on Saturday.

If the President Bush believes that Syria is one of the main supporters for Hezbollah, he could have sent a strong message to Syria with Rice, forcing Syria to exert pressure on Hezbollah to accept a cease fire agreement with Israel. But instead, we get this Bush administration claiming that talks with Syria would be pointless. Instead we get a situation where the U.S. is trying to "outsource" its Mid-East diplomacy to other nations.

What a screw-up.