Rice outlines US strategy for peace in Middle East

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton, left, meet with the three-member U.N. team that just returned from Israell and Lebanon at the Waldorf Astoria Friday July 21, 2006 in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, Pool)

I have to laugh at this story. From Yahoo News:

WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ruled out a quick "false promise" cease-fire in the Middle East Friday and defended her decision not to meet with either Syrian or Hezbollah leaders in her upcoming visit to the region.

"Syria knows what it needs to do and Hezbollah is the source of the problem," Rice said at the State Department as she previewed her trip, which begins on Sunday with a first stop in Israel.

Rice said she would work with allies to help create conditions for "stability and lasting peace."

Asked why she didn't go earlier and engage in quick-hit diplomacy to try to end the death and destruction that has gripped both Lebanon and northern Israel, she replied, "I could have gotten on a plane and rushed over and started shuttling and it wouldn't have been clear what I was shuttling to do."

Hezbollah "extremists are trying to strangle it in its crib," Rice said of the Lebanese government, which has been a less potent force in the fractured country than the politically savvy and well-armed Hezbollah guerrillas.

In her briefing for reporters on her trip, Rice said the United States was committed to ending the bloodshed, but didn't want to do it before certain conditions were met.

The United States has said all along that Hezbollah must first turn over the two Israeli soldiers and stop firing missiles into Israel.

"We do seek an end to the current violence, we seek it urgently. We also seek to address the root causes of that violence," she said. "A cease-fire would be a false promise if it simply returns us to the status quo."

Rice said that it was important to deal with the "root cause" of the violence, echoing what has been the U.S. position since last week.

President Bush, asked what he hopes Rice will achieve on her trip, said he would discuss it with her when he returns to the White House on Sunday.

So Condi Rice is not going to talk to Hezbollah or Syrian officials. Any sort of peace agreement is conditional upon dealing with the "root cause" of violence by allowing the Israeli military to destroy Hezbollah forces in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah are the evil bad guys in this fiasco. Condi Rice decided it wasn't worth it playing "shuttle diplomacy," once the violent hostilities erupted between Israel and Hezbollah. And finally, Bush doesn't have a clue as to what he expects Rice to accomplish on this Middle East trip, claiming he'll talk to Rice once she gets back to Washington.

My question to Condi Rice is this: Why are you even wasting jet fuel going to the Middle East if you're not even going to talk to two of the main parties involved in this crisis--Syria and Hezbollah? Who are you going to meet there--Israeli officials from one side, and not the Syrian or Hezbollah officials from the other? Why are you even going on this "peace" mission, when the U.S. is obviously giving the green light for Israel to march into southern Lebanon? Seems to me like this is another wasted trip, designed to play partisan politics by the White House spin-meisters for the midterm elections--President Bush is serious about diffusing this latest Middle East crisis! Look--he's sending Condi Rice to the Israel on a peace mission! Now please send more money to the Republican Party.