One of the nation’s leading experts on Islam says he believes Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is going to be « unpleasantly surprised » when she discovers that you can not negotiate with countries that harbor terrorists. Pelosi led a Congressional delegation to Da mascus Syria, where they met with Syrian leader Bashar Assad.

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Pelosi and the other delegates said the meeting was « only the beginning » of « a constructive dialogue. » However, President George W. Bush has denounced the trip as counterproductive, and Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch agrees.

Spencer says he believes Pelosi and her colleagues are going to be « unfortunately, unpleasantly surprised when they find out that nothing really is going to be satisfactory and this is all still going to go on, regardless of whatever concessions » they make to the Syrians. Besides, he points out, the Democratic congresswoman has no foreign policy authority anyway.

« What authority does she have ? None, ultimately, to set any policies at all, » the Jihad Watch spokesman notes. « But evidently she is anticipating, probably, being in power, being an associate of the [U.S.] president in 2009, » he says.

Still, Spencer contends, when it comes to negotiating with terrorist-harboring Islamic regimes, Pelosi and other Democrats simply do not get it. « I think it’s just another species of the appeasement that the Democratic Party is trying to pursue, » he says. « They still believe that if they give the right combination of concessions to various Islamic states and majority Muslim countries, they will find there will be peace — and I think they’re going to be unpleasantly surprised. »

4/5/07 - References corrected in paragraphs 3 and 4