Stop the Presses! Chirac Starts to Make Sense!

Jacques Chiraq gets one right in an interview with Haaretz.

Like a broken clock, Jacquo Chiraq can't be wrong ALL the time. And he stumbles onto the truth when he speaks about a subject the French actually know a lot about. Syria and the phoney stick-insect in charge of that sad country.

US NSC Advisor Steven Hadley concurred:

Hadley accused Syria of both supporting Hezbollah and trying to interfere in Lebanese politics, a year after it was forced to end its decades-long military presence.

"Here is Syria, which is clearly putting pressure on the Lebanese democracy, is a supporter of terror, is both provisioning and supporting Hezbollah and facilitating Iran in its efforts to support Hezbollah, is supporting the activities of Hamas," Hadley said during a visit to Riga alongside Bush for a North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit.

"This is not a Syria that is on an agenda to bring peace and stability to the region, and I think Prime Minister [Ehud] Olmert said, under those circumstances, with that kind of Syrian policy, how can you talk about negotiating on the Golan Heights? Seems to me that's a sensible position."

The Haaretz piece continues:

Syrian President Bashar Assad has called on Israel numerous times to renew talks, but has simultaneously hinted that Syria would be willing to take military steps if talks did not succeed. Syria seeks the return of the Golan Heights, captured by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. But peace talks between the two countries broke down in 2000.

Olmert has rejected the Syrian president's invitations for negotiations. The official Israeli position is that Syria must cease support of Palestinian terror organizations and Hezbollah guerrillas before renewed negotiations can be considered.

Damascus aids and abets Hezbollah in South Lebanon and shelters terrorist kingpin Kamal Mishaal of the Hamas leadership too scared to visit the West Bank.

I wish I could find the FT piece about two years ago, shortly before the Hariri murder by Assad's agents, that said in exhaustive detail how completely delusional and out of touch the Syrian leadership, disconnected from political reality, had become and how insane some of its policies could become.

Prophetic.