Syria

Fire of Liberty

Bashir Assad has started the parlor game that all dictators in the Middle East seem to play when the heat is on. Take for instance today's agreement between Lebanon and Syrian on the relocation of Assad's forces to the Beka'a valley on Lebanon's Eastern border with Syria. For one thing, Assad is saying this move is the fufillment of the Taif Accord which was drawn up by the Arab League at the end of Lebanon's horrific Civil War. According to the accord, the Syrian military would remain in Lebanon to continue peacekeeping but had to move their soldiers within two years to the border of Lebanon. The only problem is that the Taif Accord was struck in 1989 and Syria has remained in Lebanon some 14 years beyond the designated withdrawal date. Even if Assad thinks the fulfillment of Taif will assuage the West's as well as the people of Lebanon call for a full withdrawal, he is sadly mistaken. This implementation of Taif will not achieve the demands of these people and UN Security Counsel Resolution 1559. All that Assad has done is move Syria's troops from point A to point B but they still remain in Lebanon exerting their power on the tiny nation. You can't have independence from another state if they occupying country can dispatch their troops within a matter of hours back into Lebanon.

Assad's movements might be deemed a "good thing" by the people at the US State Department, Europe and the MSM types because he's doing something positive but he's continuing to play games. You can see the move to paint Assad as a less than dangerous Arab leader than other dictators in the Middle East in the current issue of Time. In a sympathetic article by Joe Klein, Assad is presented as a likeable Opthamalogist who doesn't control the strings of Syria. Just take a look at what Mr Klein wrote:

Labwani wanted me to ask Assad why he had been imprisoned. "I didn't throw him in jail," Assad told me. "I don't do everything in this country." It was an admission his father never would have made. The President's body language was more ophthalmologist than dictator. He sat hunched deep in a black leather couch. There was no physical sense of power or menace to the man, no sociopathic cool, just consternation. When I asked him who killed Rafiq Hariri, he seemed stricken: "The most important question is, Who had the benefit of it?

As President, I can't tell you this country or that. But who suffered most from it? Syria. Syria was the biggest loser. The Lebanese, definitely, they lost ... But Syria lost more." And later, as he was escorting me to the door, he said, "Please send this message: I am not Saddam Hussein. I want to cooperate." The plea was at least partly believable. Obviously, he is not Saddam Hussein. It was also plausible that he wants to cooperate. It just didn't seem very likely that he could.

No matter how many times Bashir Assad changes his stripes, he still remains a dangerous beast. Yeah, he might look like a moderate/pragmatic leader who is willing to listen to reason but he would in the same minute launch an attack on his political enemies within Syria or even Lebanon, if the international spotlight wasn't on him. In the olden days, Assad could have agreed to the Taif Accord and the US and France would simply have said this was a move in the right direction and leave it alone. As I noted Saturday, President Bush has whole-heartedly stated that Syria must remove all of its troops and intelligence agents from Lebanon and no half measures by May. The President might dither on some aspects of his policies but when it comes to the spread of freedom and democracy in the Middle East he means what he says and he'll never back down from it. Assad can continue playing his poker hand but he'll eventually have to reveal his cards, hopefully he will fold to the West and the people at Freedom's Square. The only way to achieve this is for the US and the people of Freedom's Square to continue to push for Syria's complete withdrawal.

While I've presented a positive outlook on The Cedar Revolution, I'd also like to present a word of caution for the people of Freedom's Square. Watch out for Hezbollah! They still do Syria and Iran's bidding and could create a bad situation for your peaceful gather in Beirut. So be aware when they stage their pro-Syrian demonstrations on Tuesday. For more info on Hezbollah see here.
From this report, the people in Freedom's Square are not scared of Hezbollah or satisfied with Syria's parlor games.

Long live The Cedar Revolution!!!