Rice And Bush Push Syria Into The Arms of Russia And Iran
by Steve
A day after the Bush Administration was a little too quick to show its cards in the region by recalling the US ambassador to Syria, the funeral of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri took place, with thousands of Hariri supporters calling on the Syrians to leave the country. As I said yesterday, it is hard to see what Syria would gain from killing Hariri, knowing as they would that any involvement by them in the killing would lead to exactly what is happening now. While the Syrians continued to deny their involvement in the assassination, they picked up help in two key areas today that show how a clumsily played hand by the US can lead quickly to alliances that do us no good.
Russia announced overnight that it would sell Syria an advanced missile system to defend itself against American or Israeli attacks. And Iran came out today and said it would assist Syria to defend itself against any attacks as well.
Swell. So now we have managed to push Syria formally into an alliance with Iran and Russia, who it turns out is also supplying Iran with nuclear technology. Exactly what advantage is it to us and our 150,000 troops trapped in Iraq for the Iranian Army and Revolutionary Guards to go on alert to help Syria? Will we do something stupid now to provoke Iran as well?
It’s bad enough that the Bush Administration cannot figure out how to deal with the Islamic world short of force, but they have managed to return the Middle East to the days of power alliances at the same time. We already know that the cold warriors in the administration, especially the Vice President and the new Secretary of State would prefer to deal with a world of absolutes, in black and white, that the cold war offered, rather than the complexities of the post 9/11 world.
But in their zeal to impose order American style upon the Middle East, they are squandering opportunities to build bridges at a time when the Israelis and Palestinians are doing everything they can to reduce tension in the region.
