ANALYSIS: BUSH STANCE ON SYRIA HIT SHOWS NEO-CONS STILL HOLD SWAY

[Gloria]

Inter Press Service October 7, 2003
http://www.ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=20497

ANALYSIS: BUSH STANCE ON SYRIA HIT SHOWS NEO-CONS STILL HOLD SWAY
By Jim Lobe

ROME, Oct 7 (IPS) - The neo-conservatives in and around the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush may be on the defensive, but Washington's reaction to the Israeli attack on Syria Sunday show that they remain in the driver's seat at the White House.

(snip)

Bush's explicit embrace of Israel's attack on an alleged Palestinian training camp in Syria, on the other hand, is a striking departure from decades of U.S. Middle Eastern diplomacy. Washington even denounced Israel's 1991 attack on the Osirak nuclear reactor in Iraq and, unlike the present, joined with other members of the U.N. Security Council in condemning it.

Indeed, Bush's statement Monday that he had told Sharon that ”Israel must not feel constrained defending the homeland” was almost breathtaking in its implied licence, particularly considering that it was Sharon who not only led the invasion of Lebanon but is also widely believed to have rolled all the way to Beirut without Begin's approval. Many experts and historians believe that Begin was intending a more limited military action and that Sharon took the initiative to take it much further.

(SNIP)

Many of the same people both in and out of the administration who have favoured making Syria a primary target in the U.S. ”war on terrorism” signed a report released four years ago that called explicitly for using military force to disarm Syria of supposed weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and end its military presence in Lebanon.

Among the signers of the report, which was released by a pro-Likud research group called The Middle East Forum (MEF) and the United States Committee for a Free Lebanon (USCFL), were Bush's chief deputy on the Middle East on the National Security Council, Elliott Abrams; Undersecretary of Defence for Policy Douglas Feith; Undersecretary of State for Global Affairs, Paula Dobriansky; and two special consultants associated with the neo-conservative American Enterprise Institute (AEI) who have been working on Mideast policy in the Pentagon and State Department, respectively, Michael Rubin and David Wurmser.

The signers also included Richard Perle, the powerful former chairman of the Pentagon's Defence Policy Board, his colleague at AEI, former U.N. ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick; Michael Ledeen, another AEI fellow; Frank Gaffney, a former Perle aide in the Reagan administration who now heads the Centre for Defence Policy; and David Steinmann, chairman of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA). With the exception of Kirkpatrick, all of these figures outside the administration played key roles in urging Bush to go to war in Iraq.

The study, 'Ending Syria's Occupation of Lebanon: The U.S. Role?', was co-authored by MEF president Daniel Pipes, who was just named by Bush to a post at the U.S. Institute of Peace despite widespread charges that he has promoted Islamaphobia, and Ziad Abdelnour, who heads the USCFL.

MORE

More including discussion of how this may be part of pushing a law through Congress on this....

[dalsept]

1. No surprise

Isreal has been modeling its behavior after the Bush Doctrine since it was announced. Considering the reocupation of Palestinian territories and the war in Iraq it is not surprising that they attacked. The neo cons are probably happy that the Isrealis attacked the Syrians. Afterall, they wanted to do it themselves but could not or would not.

[loudnclear]

2. Israel draws up Syrian 'hit list'

So they intend to bomb Palestinians..no matter who they are or where they are. And they will be using weapons and planes supplied by American taxpayers. They need no proof, no evidence...just their hate and we will back them. I guess we have to let God do the judging on judgement day.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/39805870-E599-4FED-8BA1-723B1C0914E6.htm