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Source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20081030.SYRIAANALYSIS30/TPStory/International
Syrian Leader Makes Strategic Decision to Turn the Other Cheek
[Globe and Mail-Canada] Mark MacKinnon - In Latakia, Syria, Bashar Assad's hometown, people make an extremely good show of appearing to love their leader. The dictator's mustachioed face glares from the back of taxi cabs and smiles benevolently out from the windows of banks and hair salons. His countrymen were looking anxiously to see what Assad will do after U.S. troops and attack helicopters carried out a raid into Syrian territory. Unfortunately for Assad, there's not a lot he can do, at least not without jeopardizing the progress Syria has made in recent months toward bringing itself out of the international isolation imposed by the Bush administration. "Syria has its hands tied behind its back. It can't allow its anger to rule this moment," said Joshua Landis, co-director of the Center for Peace Studies at the University of Oklahoma. "Syria does not want to let this raid have any impact on its relations with the European Union or other countries," said Marwan Kabalan, a political scientist at the University of Damascus.