By: Anwar Wazen / Brussels December 28th ,2004 After 21st December’s deadly attack on a US base in Mosul where 22 soldiers were massacred , a US official declared that sanctions are likely to be implemented against Syria . The attack was most likely coordinated from inside Syria .According to The Najaf police chief the attack few days later in the holy city was also coordinated from within Syria. The Syrian Mokhabarat have been quite busy . Syria is becoming a safe haven for Arab,Chechen,Afghan and other Islamist insurgents . Upon Saddam’s fall , trucks loaded with the loot from the Iraqi central Bank crossed into Damascus and were laundered through the Commercial Bank of Syria . “Damascus became a financial conduit supporting the movement of foreign fighters into and out of Iraq”*. The coalition forces and the newly trained Iraqi security forces became easy targets : “sitting ducks” waiting to be slaughtered . Cross border military action is still a matter of discussion within the US administration and it looks like a military incursion into Syria is still “premature” or is it not Mr Armitage ? “The question of what should be done with Syria has yet to be resolved . But for the first time , there are inter-agency discussions that take into account a range of scenarios” . George Casey , commander of the Multinational Force in Iraq admits that the Syrians are making some efforts on the border , “but they’re not going after the big fish , which is really the people that we’re interested in”. Without mentioning names , Casey is targeting the number one fugitive among Saddam’s loyalists Izzat el Douri as well as other Iraqi Baathists who are still on the run and operate Iraq’s resistance movement out of Syria . Day in and day out the US led Multinational Force has been suffering casualities in Iraq. At a time when the intervention in Afghanistan is unfinished and the war in Iraq against insurgency is far from over , the US military strategists seem to have opted to withhold from a military confrontation with Syria . It looks like the diplomatic and congressional efforts prodding Syria into cooperating so far fell on deaf ears. Syria has been turning a blind eye on controlling its borders with Iraq , freezing financial assets of Saddam’s loyalists and arresting the insurgency leaders that took refuge within Syria proper. Syria has managed to outwit Secretary of State Colin Powell and CIA ex chief George tenet . Tenet is out and Powell is leaving his office in few days so is Richarge Armitage who seems to be planning his last hurrah in his forthcoming visit to Syria. Having witnessed throughout three decades of brutal Syrian occupation the vicious torture , criminality , intimidation and subjugation of the Lebanese leaders and people alike , the loud voices of Lebanese activists in the diaspora issued right from the onset of the war in Iraq clear warning signals on Syria and Iran's bad intentions in Iraq. They were both determined to thwart the coalition’s efforts to bring freedom and democracy to the Iraqi people . It was clear then , and it is clearer now that a free and democratic Iraqi federation would send chills down the spine of Syria’s dictatorial regime and the mullah’s imposed shiite fundamentalism in Iran .When Saddam had his mighty fall , Syria and Iran embarked covertly on an ambitious and carefully planned project to vanquish America’s presence in Iraq . In 1983 , they succeeded by proxy by bombing the US embassy and the US marines compound in Beirut ( 270 young innocent Marines and US personnel perished in the two terrorist attacks) . Syria and Iran are sabotaging Iraq, again by proxy . Syria’s and Iran’s smoking guns were evident in Beirut in the eighties , they were evident at al Khobar towers in Saudi Arabia in the nineties, and in Faloujah , Najaf , Karbala and Mosul in 2003/04 Somehow, when it comes to action against the unfathomable Syria , the US diplomacy and even some hawks at the Pentagon have been , in their inaction , loyal to the Turkish adage “ too much talk , too little action”** . How much more blood do we have to witness in Iraq and elsewhere before Syria is put in check ! Carrots never worked with rogue States . The Assad dynasty in Syria is resilient to anything short of a stick . A case in point is Turkey's military ultimatum in September 1998 to cease support for the subversive PKK and deject Apo Ocalan . Hafez el Assad , father of the current President of Syria danced to the Turkish tune when he sensed that Turkey meant business. Syria is again trying to buy time . Dick Armitage will be undoubtedly warning the Syrians to dance to the texas jazz tune. Or is he ???? *Lt.Gen. Lance Smith, deputy chief of Central command. **- Laf çok az Ish- (in Turkish it means too much talk ,little action) |