Lately the cognoscenti have been circulating an idea around Washington:  all the United States has to do is propose direct talks with Iran and Syria and all of our problems in the Middle East will be solved.  These talks, they claim, will halt the violence in Iraq, the brewing civil war in Lebanon, and end the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

Merely stating the proposition demonstrates its absurdity.

Those proposing this idea normally begin with the premise that Iran and Syria are involved in these three explosive and violent situations.  That is true.  However, they are more than "involved."  Iran and Syria are responsible.

Saddam Hussein's henchman escaped to Syria, transferring their arms with them.  Once the war ended and the U.S. began its effort to stabilize the Iraqi nation, the Syrians permitted the free flow of arms and insurgents across their long porous border into Iraq where they could attack American troops, Iraqi governmental forces, and the Shiite population.  In Iraq's south and east it was Iran who was supplying the weapons and permitting the flow of militants to attack the U.S., attack Sunni targets, and disrupt the nascent government.

In Lebanon, it has been Iranian arms flowing through Syria that have armed Hezbollah, emboldening them to begin a war with Israel this summer and now to attempt to overthrow the Lebanese government.  At the same time, it was Syria and its supporters in the Lebanese intelligence in Beirut who are responsible for assassinating first Rafik Hariri and Pierre Gemayel.

The Hariri assassination was designed to prevent Syria from losing control of Lebanon to a lawfully elected democratic government.  For years, Damascus had called the shots in Beirut.  Despite an outcry from the United Nations, the United States, and France, the Syrians were unwilling to give up their control over Lebanon.  The Hariri assassination did not achieve Syria's objective.  In fact, it had the opposite effect.

The United States and France, utilizing the UN, called for an international tribunal to determine responsibility for Hariri's assassination.  In order to convene that tribunal, the UN needed the support of the Lebanese government.  To derail the process, the Syrians and their cohorts assassinated Gemayel, a government minister.  Now Iran and Syria's puppets in the Hezbollah are planning violent protests to disrupt the country, perhaps create a civil war and bring down the government.

In Gaza, it is the Iranians who have been arming Hamas and encouraging Palestinians to continue their attacks against Israel.  It is possible that the Palestinian people, having taken a pounding during recent months by Israeli forces, may decide to stop being Tehran's stooges and comply with the most recent cease-fire with Israel.  But that remains to be seen.

Against this background, Washington's most naive are calling for talks with Iran and Syria.  But the mere articulation of this option grants Tehran and Damascus an increased measure of prestige and respect.  Already arrogant from the recent course of events in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East, leaders there are now emboldened by a perceived confirmation that the way out of the crisis is theirs to decide.

The reality is these talks would do no good.  Syria and Tehran have shown no willingness to compromise on any issue.  Moreover, the U.S. has nothing to offer Syria or Iran.  We certainly do not want to let the Iranians develop a nuclear bomb or control Iraq.  We are not prepared to let the Syrians exert their control over Lebanon once again as they did for so many years.  We are not prepared (and Israel wouldn't be willing) to surrender the Golan Heights.

Talking with Iran and Syria won't solve our Middle Eastern problems.  It will only make them worse.