OpinionJournal - Featured Article: "Curiously, Gemayel was killed just as the U.N. agreed on the composition of an international tribunal to try the case. It is no secret that Syrian President Bashar Assad has been pulling out all the stops to quash the trial. Six pro-Syrian politicians in the Lebanese cabinet recently resigned en masse in an attempt to cripple the government, and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has been threatening huge demonstrations to bring down the anti-Syrian Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, who is also backed by the U.S. and France. Killing Gemayel removes another obstacle to Syrian dominance in Lebanon.
Which brings us back to Mr. Baker and the rest of the U.S. foreign-policy establishment now urging a new entente with Damascus. It's true that every Administration must deal with the world as it is. But when it comes to Syria, do the sages of the Iraq Study Group really want the Bush Administration to seek the benediction of a country that stirs such mayhem in Beirut?"
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
OpinionJournal - Featured Article
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5 comments:
We have diplomatic relations with Syria. We are not friends and Baker is not suggesting that we should be. It seems to me there is something akin to the Dubai paranoia/hysteria taking place here.
It would be interesting to see if the Iraq Study Group is quickly erasing some of their conclusions and doing quick rewrites because of the assassination.
Wishful thinking.
But Syria and Iran are involved in both Iraq and Lebanon. Do we sell out Lebanon to save Iraq and by so doing lose both?
The world is looking for 'negotiations' and some kind of 'settlement'. Sick of the violence. Looking for a respite. But while the West sits back and thinks things will be okay for a while, the Islamic movement is emboldened. They'd love a hudna to be able to regroup.
Bush is correct. We have to fight them over there. If we're not over there, drawing all the attention, the movement will feel a sense of relief and spread further.
Syl:
Well we don't really know what they wrote in the first place. That is the point. The right has been going so bonkers over all this without any real evidence.
I think the thing that people are forgtting is that until 9/11 most of us were realists. I know my opinions have changed since the first Gulf War. And yet people want to demonize Baker and his team {is Rudy on this?} because of what they say he represented 16 years ago. Is that fair?
I remember the first Gulf War and there is no way Bush1 was going to get support from anyone to go after Saddam. Blaming all that on Baker is not fair.
however, we can not just ignore Syria and Iran. If we can talk to NK as part of the 6 party talks then obviously we can talk to people when and if we think there might be something to gain.
bostonian:
It might have something to do with the fact that the American people are really not interested in bombing Damascus.
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