In a radio interview with a Syracuse radio station, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) issued a staunch defense of Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) trip to Syria last week. Noting that Republicans also visited Syria last week, Clinton said the congressional delegations did “the right thing”:
I think that both her delegation, which was primarily Democrats, and a Republican delegation that was there approximately at the same time are doing the right thing. We have got to engage these countries.
“I don’t agree with the President’s view that we don’t talk to bad people,” Clinton said, “because clearly that’s not a smart way to figure out how you can bring leverage on them and that’s what I’m interested in.” Clinton is right. Leverage over Syria can only come from giving the regime an opportunity to demonstrate it is willing to become part of the solution rather than remain part of the problem. The Bush administration’s approach of isolating Syria has only made the situation worse because it contains no incentives for Syria to change its behavior.
Interviewer: Nancy Pelosi has taken that trip to Syria which raised a lot of controversy. What was your take on that? Were you pleased that she did that or do you think that was a mistake?
Senator Clinton: No, I think that both her delegation, which was primarily Democrats, and a Republican delegation that was there approximately at the same time are doing the right thing. We have got to engage these countries. Obviously we have serious differences with a country like Syria, but we’re sure not making progress towards our goals in the region by isolating and ignoring them. So I wish the President were engaged in the region, in the way that I would think a President should be. You know we were always engaged, whether it was a Republican or Democratic President. With the former Soviet Union, we had a Communist Empire with thousands of missiles pointed at us, with Presidents who said that they wanted to bury us, running proxy wars against us. We never stopped engaging and talking and we never gave up on our values. In fact I think we learned a lot about our adversaries which helped us eventually bring about their decline and defeat in the Cold War. Well I think that’s the much smarter way. I don’t agree with the President’s view that we don’t talk to bad people because clearly that’s not a smart way to figure out how you can bring leverage on them and that’s what I’m interested in.