HOW WIDE THE AXIS? :

Syria forms new alliances : Bush's talk of removing Hussein inspires Damascus to improve relations with Turkey, Jordan, and Iraq. (Nicholas Blanford, June 26, 2002, The Christian Science Monitor)

Pressured by Israel and a suspicious United States, Syria is taking steps to build a loose-knit regional alliance by turning its immediate neighbors from potential enemies into useful allies.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is reversing decades of hostility and mistrust with Turkey, Iraq, and Jordan. With military and economic delegations dispatched to Ankara and Baghdad in the past week, Syria and its neighbors are also preparing for the potential ramifications of a Washington-led drive to unseat Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, analysts say.

Two of the Islamic nations for which optimists--including we--have held out the most hope are Jordan and Turkey. Both have reasonably good relations with Israel and the U.S.. Both seem to be developing the infrastructure that would make possible a gradual evolution toward full democracy. But this story is troubling.

If these two countries have decided that their future lies with Syria and Iraq instead of with the West then maybe we are headed toward a semi-apocalyptic clash of civilizations. In the face of such an alliance I would have no trouble admitting that I've been wrong and that Islam may be irredeemable.

The possibility of such a widening of the axis of evil would seem to offer ample reason to depose Saddam sooner rather than later, before such relations can develop too much further.

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 26, 2002 11:32 AM