Getting Serious About Syria II

Getting Serious About Syria II
Another installment in the ongoing effort to get serious about the problem of Syria. How many more Americans will die while we try to work on the problem? See the first installment of this series for more.

OpinionJournal - Featured Article: "Fedayeen interviewed by Western media say they received training in light weapons, explosives and hit-and-run operations at camps in Syria. These camps are likely financed by the $2.5 billion Saddam Hussein is believed to have stashed in Syrian banks before the war. In April, Jordanian intelligence captured an al Qaeda cell as it planned a chemical-weapons attack in Amman. That cell, too, was apparently trained in Syria.Syria supplements its tactical support for Iraqi terrorists with overt political support. 'Syria's interest is to see the invaders defeated in Iraq,' said Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa in early 2003. 'The resistance of the Iraqis is extremely important. It is a heroic resistance to the U.S.-British occupation of their country.' In an interview in the Lebanese paper Al-Safir, Syrian President Bashar Assad was no less explicit when he offered Lebanon circa 1983 as an example of how the U.S. was to be fought in Iraq: 'Lebanon was under Israeli occupation, up to its capital, but we did not consider that a disaster. Why? Because it was very clear there are ways to resist. The problem is not the occupation, but how people deal with it. . . . [In Iraq] the solution is resistance.' In the case of Lebanon, that resistance took the form of hostage taking and Hezbollah truck bombs aimed at U.S. Marine barracks. Syria continues openly to support Hezbollah. It also gives sanctuary to Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other anti-Israel terrorist groups. When Colin Powell suggested their Damascus headquarters be shut down on a visit there in 2003, Mr. Assad contemptuously replied they were only press offices."
posted by Michael Miller 12/15/2004 10:14:03 AM