QUOTHE THE CARPENTERS, WE'VE ONLY JUST BEGUN:

Hawks circling for new targets: Iran, Syria and North Korea are on list of potential marks. (David Westphal, 3/16/03, Sacramento Bee)

Even as President Bush struggles against robust international opposition to launch a regime-toppling invasion of Iraq, some of the strongest and earliest supporters of military action against Saddam Hussein are already looking ahead to the next target.

Some hawks outside the government are beginning to turn up the rhetorical heat against Iran and Syria, both of whom are Iraq's neighbors, and both known to be funneling aid to Middle East terrorist groups. Others are focusing on North Korea and its rapidly mobilized nuclear weapons program, or the North African country of Libya.

"Even after Mr. Hussein is gone, other tyrannies, such as North Korea and Iran, will continue to threaten world peace," said Max Boot, a scholar at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

Such tough talk reflects the fact that, despite Bush's rocky road toward his goal of regime change in Iraq, and despite the many questions about how it will proceed, some in Washington believe the Iraq conflict will mark only the beginning of U.S. resolve to exercise its military muscle.

"It takes little imagination to dream up other scenarios that might call for pre-emptive military action," said Thomas Donnelly, a military analyst at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington think tank that has led the charge for war against Iraq.

Donnelly said one such example might be the imminent overthrow of the Musharraf government in Pakistan, given that country's possession of nuclear weapons.

Do them all. Do them now. Castro too. Posted by Orrin Judd at March 17, 2003 12:33 PM