THE DUST OF THE ARM-CHAIR GENERAL CHAIR RISES III

The report by The New York Times

G.I.'s and Syrians in Tense Clashes on Iraqi Border

October 15, 2005


of action between U.S. and Syrian forces on the border and what this means, is farcical. The border has been permeable for 2 1/2 years! I have been writing about the need to deal with Syria to stabilise Iraq since this weblog was first started.

The mention, here, of the fear of who would replace Assad if he was deposed is a clue to this. If a coterie of Ba'ath generals took over it would surely be easiler for America to deal with Syria because there would in essence be an overt war footing. Apart from the fact that Syria has serviceable WMD, the only strategy Syria has had is the region is the historical one of Greater Syria. This in effect means Syria's belief that Lebanon is part of Syria. All that is left is the sort of covert trouble-making against Israel that all Arab states engage in, which demonstrates their political weakness.

Iran has been behind much of the conflict in the region for decades. So the argument that Iran is too strong to tackle is nonsense. If Iran had been strong it would not have needed to resort to decades of systemmatic disruption in places such as Lebanon and Israel/Palestine.

....curbing the number of foreign Arab fighters moving through Syria, ...[America].... has not yet restricted former senior members of Saddam Hussein's government from using Syria as a haven from which to provide money and coordination to the Sunni-based insurgency in Iraq.

Is that a form of lunacy or a form of lunacy? Would not the immediate demand for Syria to kick out the remnants of the Iraqi leadership - and to freeze its bank accounts - have been the most effective way to prevent the insurgency? And yet several years have passed with Iraq descending itnto chaos.

  ¶ Saturday, October 15, 2005