No
carrots , time for the stick.
December 28th
,2004
After 21st December’s deadly attack on a US base in Mosul
where 22 soldiers were massacred , a US official declared that
sanctions are likely to be implemented against Syria . The attack
was most likely coordinated from inside Syria .According to The Najaf
police chief the attack few days later in the holy city was also
coordinated from within Syria. The Syrian Mokhabarat have been
quite busy . Syria is becoming a safe haven for Arab,Chechen,Afghan and
other Islamist insurgents . Upon Saddam’s fall , trucks loaded
with the loot from the Iraqi central Bank crossed into Damascus
and were laundered through the Commercial Bank of Syria . “Damascus
became a financial conduit supporting the movement of foreign fighters
into and out of Iraq”*. The coalition forces and the newly trained Iraqi
security forces became easy targets : “sitting ducks” waiting to be
slaughtered . Cross border military action is still a matter of
discussion within the US administration and it looks like a
military incursion into Syria is still “premature” or is it not Mr
Armitage ? “The question of what should be done with Syria has yet to be
resolved . But for the first time , there are inter-agency discussions
that take into account a range of scenarios” . George Casey , commander
of the Multinational Force in Iraq admits that the Syrians are making
some efforts on the border , “but they’re not going after the big fish ,
which is really the people that we’re interested in”. Without
mentioning names , Casey is targeting the number one fugitive among
Saddam’s loyalists Izzat el Douri as well as other Iraqi Baathists
who are still on the run and operate Iraq’s resistance movement
out of Syria . Day in and day out the US led Multinational Force has
been suffering casualities in Iraq. At a time when the intervention in
Afghanistan is unfinished and the war in Iraq against
insurgency is far from over , the US military strategists seem to have
opted to withhold from a military confrontation with Syria . It looks
like the diplomatic and congressional efforts prodding Syria into
cooperating so far fell on deaf ears. Syria has been turning a blind eye
on controlling its borders with Iraq , freezing financial assets
of Saddam’s loyalists and arresting the insurgency leaders that took
refuge within Syria proper. Syria has managed to outwit Secretary of
State Colin Powell and CIA ex chief George tenet . Tenet is out and
Powell is leaving his office in few days so is Richarge Armitage who
seems to be planning his last hurrah in his forthcoming visit to Syria.
Having witnessed throughout three decades of brutal Syrian
occupation the vicious torture , criminality , intimidation and
subjugation of the Lebanese leaders and people alike , the loud voices
of Lebanese activists in the diaspora issued right from the onset
of the war in Iraq clear warning signals on Syria and Iran's bad
intentions in Iraq. They were both determined to thwart the
coalition’s efforts to bring freedom and democracy to the Iraqi people .
It was clear then , and it is clearer now that a free and democratic
Iraqi federation would send chills down the spine of Syria’s dictatorial
regime and the mullah’s imposed shiite fundamentalism in Iran .When
Saddam had his mighty fall , Syria and Iran embarked
covertly on an ambitious and carefully planned project to vanquish
America’s presence in Iraq . In 1983 , they succeeded by proxy
by bombing the US embassy and the US marines compound in Beirut (
270 young innocent Marines and US personnel perished in the two
terrorist attacks) . Syria and Iran are sabotaging Iraq,
again by proxy . Syria’s and Iran’s
smoking guns were evident in Beirut in the eighties , they were evident
at al Khobar towers in Saudi Arabia in the nineties, and in Faloujah ,
Najaf , Karbala and Mosul in 2003/04
Somehow, when it comes to action against the unfathomable Syria , the US
diplomacy and even some hawks at the Pentagon have been , in their
inaction , loyal to the Turkish adage “ too much talk , too little
action”** . How much more blood do we have to witness in Iraq and
elsewhere before Syria is put in check ! Carrots never worked with
rogue States . The Assad dynasty in Syria is resilient to anything
short of a stick . A case in point is Turkey's military ultimatum
in September 1998 to cease support for the subversive PKK and deject Apo
Ocalan . Hafez el Assad , father of the current President of
Syria danced to the Turkish tune when he sensed that Turkey
meant business. Syria is again trying to buy time . Dick Armitage
will be undoubtedly warning the Syrians to dance to the texas jazz tune.
Or is he ????
*Lt.Gen. Lance Smith, deputy chief
of Central command.
**- Laf çok az Ish- (in Turkish it
means too much talk ,little action) |
