Good morning, Bashar

God Bless those liberals. They never give up on utopia, as evidenced by Diane Sawyer's near Oprah-like interview with Syria's Bashar Assad.

We now know what's on his Ipod! What a guy, he likes both Faith Hill and Shania Twain. At least he didn't say the Dixie Chicks, but he deserves props for good taste. That said, I'm pretty sure it makes him an infidel, which is further evidence of how silly the "secularists and Islamists can't work together" meme really was.

Ever since The Decider blew off the ISG certain Democrats and media types have been tripping all over each other, nearly pulling hamstrings to beat each other to Assad's door. "If Bush won't dialogue, we will, dangit". Now we see the results.

We still don't know the answer to many important questions, such as whether Syria is harboring renegade Iraqi Ba'athist insurgent leaders like Izzat al-Duri and if so, why; their need to align with Tehran and their hegemony in Lebanon, or their role in the murders of Hariri and Gemayel.

Or how about this--whether Mr. Assad thinks there are any Iraqi weapons stashed in the Bekaa Valley? Inquiring minds, Ms. Sawyer! He might not answer, but it would be fun to watch the squirm.

Such tough questions don't go well with coffee and croissants, but hopefully a soccer mom or three took note of this:

Sawyer: On the current course, what do you think will going to happen next in Iraq?

Assad: Next? Whether it's a budding civil war or a full-blown civil war, it doesn't matter what the definition. It's like domino effect, it's going to affect the whole Middle East in general, and this means it's going to affect the rest of the world.

My gosh, he sounds like a neocon.

Perhaps the most glaring omission was the lack of questioning on Syria's role in assisting Hizballah in the Israeli war. Surely that's just as important as what's on his Ipod. Yes, yes, we must know our enemies and talking is the only way, but does that have to include going into enemy territory during a war and letting the man throw barbs at the President on worldwide TV?

UPDATE 2/7/07

As one of the thousands (?) who sent Ms. Sawyer some suggested questions for the second part of her interview with Assad I was happy to see today's edition. She was much harder on him, asked him a number of real squirmers, and he answered like a typical wormy politician. No, nothing about our friend Izzat al-Duri, but she grilled him pretty good on Hariri. She deserves praise.