TO HOUSE SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI

For cozying up to Syrian President Bashar al-Asad with public handshakes and declarations that her delegation had come “in friendship, hope, and determined that the road to Damascus is a road to peace” was worrisome on several counts. First, the State Department has named Syria a sponsor of terrorism. Second, diplomacy is the domain of the executive branch, not the Congress. That’s why the executive has the Pentagon, State and the intelligence community — and Congress does not. Third, this is no time for senior U.S government officials to be sending mixed and contradictory signals in the Middle East.