Cheney is supposedly going to smooth over feathers ruffled by Rice's coy courting of Syria and Iran, but as
Laura Rozen points out, why would "our closest allies" in the Middle East care if Rice opens up to Iran and Syria when Saudi Arabia itself has hosted Ahmedinejad at regional talks? But why else would Cheney be going if he didn't believe in the insane delusion that his presence would somehow be reassuring to governments worrying about the mess he and his pals have made? What could that vacant tub of gas possibly have to offer any of them, except maybe a résumé in case some lobbying position opens up post-Bush?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/08/AR2007050800131_pf.html"No visit by Dick Cheney with 18 months to go in the Bush administration can serve to either supplement or somehow make policies ... any more effective," said the former career diplomat. "I spent 25 years going on trips with secretaries of states and presidents, and I'll tell you one thing: One trip doesn't make much of a dent, even if the circumstances weren't as grim as they are."
No longer is the United States seen as "tough, powerful and credible," said Miller. "We are perceived to be failing. And, at some point, those leaders out there _ personal relations with Cheney notwithstanding _ are going to begin to make their own plans for the end of the Bush administration."
On Cheney's 2002 tour _ which also included stops in Israel, Oman, Yemen, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Turkey _ he found little support for an invasion of Iraq and considerable concern among Arab leaders that the U.S. wasn't doing more to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.
Cheney went to Saudi Arabia in November 2006 for private talks with King Abdullah.
Judith Kipper, a Mideast expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, a think tank, said she thinks Iran may end up trumping other items on Cheney's agenda.
"I do think people in the region are nervous. Iraq is disintegrating. And in the cold war of words between Iran and the U.S., the United States is going back and forth in a way that could become a miscalculation, a misstep," she said.
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