Good Cop, Bad Cop...

There seems to be an awful lot of Seanators and other 2008 Presidential hopefuls headed out to the Middle East these days, to "talk" with our enemies and go on "fact-finding" missions. This undermines our diplomatic efforts in a major way. Take Iran: The purpose of any kind of diplomacy on the part of the administration is to play the old good cop/bad cop game, with the U.S. Military as the bad cop. You know, speak softly/big stick and all that. The minute somebody else from our side comes into the conversation and decides to play nice, it immediately turns the Administration into the bad cop, shifting the discussion away from the military option. We need a united diplomatic front, in order to keep the military option in play. Our enemies know this, so they're more than happy to entertain some bumbling Senator or whatnot, and send him home with the message that they will cooperate under such and such conditions. It makes the entire situation less clear and more difficult to deal with. these politicians who do their own freelance diplomacy should be prosecuted and removed from office.