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Getting Serious About Syria

(Weekly Standard) William Kristol - U.S. and Iraqi officials believe the Syrian government has turned a blind eye to those supporting terrorists in Iraq. Several prominent mosques in Damascus, including the large Bilal al-Hashemi mosque, have reputations as staging posts for Syrian fighters. The U.S. military believes there may be as many as 2,000 foreign fighters in Iraq, mostly from Syria. Thousands of members of Saddam's regime have settled in the wealthy Mezzeh district of Damascus. By Bush Doctrine standards, Syria is a hostile regime, one that seems to be doing more than any other, right now, to help Baathists and terrorists kill Americans in the central front of the war on terror. We now need to take action to punish and deter Assad's regime. We could bomb Syrian military facilities; we could go across the border in force to stop infiltration; we could occupy the town of Abu Kamal in eastern Syria, which seems to be the planning and organizing center for Syrian activities in Iraq; we could covertly help or overtly support the Syrian opposition; and this hardly exhausts all the possible forms of pressure and coercion. But it's time to get serious about dealing with Syria as part of winning in Iraq, and in the broader Middle East.
2004-12-13 00:00:00
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