ETS! encourages comments, feedback, tips, corrections, and info! Please keep them as concise as possible so we can print as many different voices as possible: ETS!, P.O. Box 85541, Seattle WA 98145, or e-mail ets@scn.org.

All Hail Pelosi!

At last, a real window of hope in the Middle East! US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited with Syrian President Bashar Assad and the Syrians helped convince Iran to release the British sailors. Now these two actions may not be directly connected, but they clearly underscore the bankruptcy of the Bush Administration. Calling people axes of evil and terrorists and snubbing them doesn't work as a diplomatic strategy. The bipartisan Iraq Study Group and the US generals both firmly stated to the White House that guns could not solve the Iraq mess. Only talking with Syria and Iran could do that. Nancy Pelosi has accomplished more in one visit than Bush has with his two months of fizzled "Surge."

At last we see the Democrats coming together, taking the offensive, and exercising a sure hand on the steering wheel of power. Nancy Pelosi's bold initiative will be seen as the turning point in this pointless war. Her courageous action matches the daring of our own Congressman, Jim McDermott, who flew to Baghdad days before Bush launched his invasion of Iraq and warned Americans that war was not the answer. We can stop counting down the days of Bush's remaining time in office. It is time now for us to awake from the nightmare and start running our country in spite of him.

--Janice Van Cleve, Seattle