Washington, even despite quiet requests by Israel during its war with Hezbollah last summer, has refused to talk with Syria since Damascus was implicated in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.

It spurned an unprecedented 2003 offer by Iran for sweeping and unconditional negotiations and repeatedly rebuffed various approaches by Tehran since. And it has rejected all contacts with the democratically elected Hamas government in the Palestinian territories.

Contrast that attitude with Baker's who, in a much-quoted ABC News interview last Sunday, declared flatly, "...I believe in talking to your enemies. I don't think you restrict your conversations to your friends... (I)n my view, it's not appeasement to talk to your enemies."
Lest anyone misunderstood, he went on to note that he made 15 trips to Damascus to secure its participation in the U.S.-led Gulf War and in subsequent negotiations in 1991, despite the fact that Syria was on the State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism at the time.

Nearly unnoticed amid the justified global furor over North Korea's nuclear test is that Syria has been flashing peace signals at Israel and the United States. It is unwise to ignore them.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice seemed to be doing just this, however, when she failed on a recent trip in the region to visit Damascus, often a crucial stop on past American emissaries' Middle East peace tours.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told a BBC interviewer last week that Syria was prepared to return to the peace table with Israel, insisting that he needed an "impartial" umpire, perhaps from the European Union (EU). But he said the Bush administration couldn't play this role, because the US doesn't have "the will or vision" to pursue peace in the Middle East, nor is there concrete US-Syria dialogue.

We know that some in the United States, worried by recent Islamist gains among voters in Palestine and Egypt, are having doubts about the wisdom of pushing for freedom and democracy in the Middle East. These worries are exploited by despots in the region to perpetuate the untenable status quo. But there is no way to advance liberty without inclusion of all elements that are willing to abide by democratic rules and reject violence.