A Bad Week for the West
By Bernard B. Kerik

For the United States and the United Kingdom, this last week wasn’t a great one in the war against terrorism and radical fundamentalism with the exception of the release of the 15 British soldiers that had been held hostage by Iran for thirteen days. After ambushing their ship and taking the soldiers into custody, Iran went on to embarrass and humiliate them by having them read prepared statements as if the rest of the world was too ignorant to realize the words were those of the Iranian government and not those of the soldiers held in violation of the Geneva Convention.

The release of the soldiers came as a surprise to most but in my mind clearly demonstrated the division of powers within the Iranian government between the extremists and the logical members of the hierarchy. Once they had them, it was like the senior government officials were holding a hot potato… now what do we do with them, they must have thought.

Knowing this was a lose – lose for Iran in the international community, their cowardly president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad threw up his hands, called it an Easter Gift and announced that they would be set free. That was the best part of this story.

The bad part of the story is that Ahmadinejad and his government will probably get away with it. Where is the international outrage and accountability? Who is going to answer for the violations of the Geneva Convention? Where is the voice of the UN and others that should be wondering whether their countries or soldiers could be next?

It’s so silent it’s scary.

In another part of the region, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi took it upon herself to act as Presidential envoy and visit with Syrian President Bashar Assad. The only problem with this visit was that when you are a Presidential envoy, you are supposed to carry a message from the President, a message united in substance and united in force. Her message was neither.

The speaker and her staff will probably admit that she was not acting as Presidential envoy to which I would say that they should have stuck around the region a few more days to watch what Al-Jaseera and other Arab media outlets are going to say about that. They’ll report that the Pelosi visit is a positive development on the part of the US to promote Syria’s interests in the region. What they won’t say is that those interests are to undermine Lebanon while providing support to Hamas and Hezbollah.

I personally believe we should speak to Assad and his government, but only on a united front and not before he himself proves he is serious about his role in the international community and his support of state sponsored terrorism has stopped. He has had so many opportunities to come clean but just hasn’t come thru and if we think he will now, we are sadly mistaken thanks to Speaker Pelosi.

He hasn’t had to do anything and yet today is a hero in the region.

The unfortunate thing for the west and those countries that must deal with radical Islam and the war against terror for decades to come is that every radical leader, group, organization or terror sponsoring state, witnessed this week two victories for Iran and Syria.

Hopefully one day we will look at the threats we face in this war against terror on a united front, and make the commitment that has to be made, whether it’s in Iraq, Afghanistan or anywhere else, to insure that we and our children can continue to live in a peaceful and free world.

Until then, and until we learn about and understand the enemy and how to deal with their sponsors and supporters like Syria and Iran appropriately, there will be many more bad weeks to come.

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