The Gipper to the Rescue

Fire of Liberty

Peter Schweizer notes in a piece in today's Op/Ed section of USA Today that President Bush needs to follow the footsteps of President Reagan when dealing with Syria and its ongoing support of the terrorists entering Iraq. Here's a taste:

Reagan's response? He applied portions of the Export Control Act and announced that he was extending the sanctions to include any foreign companies that were using U.S.-licensed technology. If, for example, a French company used U.S.-licensed technologies on the pipeline, that company could not sell in the U.S. market.

European leaders were outraged, and a compromise followed. In exchange for backing down, Reagan got the Europeans to commit to tightening loans, dramatically reducing the size of the natural gas projects and tightening controls on technology exports.

If our European allies fail to support a tighter squeeze on Syria, President Bush should consider a similar move. Syria needs international technological and management support to keep its energy sector going. And no international energy company is going to risk exclusion from the U.S. market in exchange for a contract with the Syrian government.

There are other levers that we should also be prepared to pull. The so-called Arab Gas Pipeline will bring huge quantities of natural gas to Syria when it is completed in the next few years. There are also large petrochemical projects, such as one just completed south of Damascus. These projects rely on funding from international banking institutions, as well as the International Finance Corporation (an offshoot of the World Bank). They are critical for the economic health of Syria. The Bush administration should lean heavily on international financial bodies that are doing business with Syria (and are funded in part with U.S. taxpayer dollars).

It's always great to find one more example of how "The Gipper" was able to defeat the Soviets. To find more on Reagan's wisdom in fighting the Cold War, check out Peter Schweizer's wonderful book Reagan's War: The Epic Story of His Forty Year Struggle and Final Triumph Over Communism. Hopefully the folks in the White House will pick up on the sage wisdom of Reagan.