THE LITTLE ENGINE THAT SHOULDN'T BE ALLOWED TO ANY MORE:

Assad Must Go (Farid Ghadry, May 29, 2008, NY Sun)

Moreover the Syrian regime under the rule of Bashar al-Assad has cemented its role as an engine for instability, chaos, and terrorism in the Middle East. The core interests of America and democracy in Iraq and the wider region are threatened by the Assad regime's shrewd strategies that have drawn it closer to Iranian hegemonic aims while separately accommodating Sunni extremist groups tied to Al Qaeda.

Syria's role in terrorism faded to the backdrop of public consciousness following the Israeli strike against the nuclear reactor on September 6, 2007. But Mr. Assad's regime was not content in facilitating the deaths of American servicemen and women. Instead, their vision of nuclear weapons showed the immediacy of its threat.

Those who have argued that Syrian acquiescence could be given the right "bargains" must now answer how Syria's development of a covert nuclear program built by the North Koreans figures into such logic. Simply put, the Syrian regime remains implacable and dedicated to rejecting a peaceful world order.

A serious U.S. demarche on this issue is long overdue. While Iran is increasingly confronted in the public arena for its machinations in Iraq, Mr. Assad and company have been granted a free pass.

The Syrians are following a very familiar playbook once charted by Saddam Hussein. As uncovered regime documents have come to demonstrate, Hussein fashioned a complex foreign policy, which relied on terror and the threat of terror as the principle tools of statecraft. Calls for dialogue based on common interests with the West were merely an exercise in denial and deception.

Today's case in Syria is no different. The Syrian threat is a perfect storm of the worst amalgamation of terror threats imaginable.

We and a slew of Arab states have tried bargaining and cajoling to no avail. A renewed policy imperative is needed; one which recognizes that the freedom agenda and American security in the region cannot be ignored.

That we have not regime-changed Syria is the single great failure of President Bush in foreign policy. Its domestic repression is reason enough, but providing sanctuary to Hezbollah, Iraqi and Palestinian extremists is icing on the cake--yellowcake if you want to add nuclear ambitions.

MORE:
Syria-bound missile components intercepted, claims US (29/05/2008, Daily Telegraph)

Equipment bound for Syria which could be used to test ballistic missile components was intercepted during a previously undisclosed mission, the United States has announced.

Four member states of the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), a group of 90 countries who seek to prevent the shipment of weapons of mass destruction, were involved in the operation in February, 2007.

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 28, 2008 8:06 PM