Posted on 05/12/2004 10:46:05 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
US Chose Bad Time to Impose Syria Sanctions-Arabs
Wed May 12, 2004 11:46 AM ET
By Lin Noueihed
BEIRUT (Reuters) - The United States, battling a prisoner abuse scandal and insurgency in Iraq, could not have chosen a worse time to slap new sanctions on Syria, Arabs said Wednesday.
Many warned that the sanctions, welcomed only by Syria's arch-foe Israel, would only fuel anger against America.
"If they are having such trouble in Iraq, they should at least calm down Iraq's neighbors," said Mohamed al-Sayed Said of Egypt's al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies.
"Whoever is ruling Syria would be foolish not to try harder to embarrass the Americans in Iraq. Anyone seeing his regime so severely undermined and humiliated would have no option but to try and spoil it for the Americans in Iraq."
Labeling Syria "an unusual and extraordinary threat," President Bush Tuesday signed an order imposing sanctions long in the pipeline on Damascus for backing anti-Israeli groups and allowing anti-American insurgents to cross the Syrian border into Iraq.
Damascus has repeatedly said the sanctions would only harm the handful of American firms in Syria and would not persuade it to end backing for groups it defends as legitimate resistance.
Many Arabs said the widely-expected move was the latest in a series of Middle East policy mistakes driven by Washington's blind bias toward Israel, the only country in the region to welcome the sanctions.
"This is an important decision that proves, once again, the resolve of the United States to wage all-out war -- not just against terrorist groups, but also against the countries that harbor them," the Israeli foreign ministry said in a statement.
NO EFFECT
The sanctions ban exports except for food and medicine, freeze assets of Syrians and Syrian entities suspected of links to terror or weapons of mass destruction and ban Syrian flights to and from the United States.
Bush will consider further sanctions unless Damascus ends its support for anti-Israeli militant groups such as the Palestinian Hamas and Lebanon's Hizbollah, pulls its troops out of Lebanon, ends development of forbidden weapons and cooperates fully with U.S.-led efforts to stabilize Iraq.
"(The sanctions) are only going to increase tension in the region, and we have enough of that," Kuwaiti Islamist parliamentarian Nasser al-Sane told Reuters.
"Because Syria is an Arab country there's going to be an Arab reaction sympathetic to Syria, because its a member of the Arab family this is only going to increase the conflict."
Damascus, which bitterly opposed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, has described the sanctions as "unjust and unwarranted."
It says it has done its best to control the border but would still pursue a policy of "dialogue" with Washington.
"When they say the Syrians should be more careful about the border, they forget to mention that they (the Americans) are on the other side. Why aren't they doing a better job?" an Arab League official said.
"I don't think this is the right approach. The right approach is through dialogue, especially since they have recently indicated they have seen the Syrians cooperate."
Lebanese President Emile Lahoud, whose country is under heavy political and military influence from Syria, said the sanctions were "wrong in both content and timing" and were further proof that Washington pandered to Israeli interests.
"This decision poses the question of whether the series of mistakes the American administration is committing in the region will lead to more tensions, escalation and feelings of injustice on the Arab side," he said in a statement.
Some dismissed the sanctions as little more than symbolic, given Washington's economic and political ties with Damascus.
"The American pressure on Syria is a long-term plan and this is part of it," said Saudi political analyst Abdullah al-Otaibi.
"U.S. image in the Middle East is already bad," said another Gulf analyst. "It just solidifies the Arab conviction that Israel is running the show in the Middle East."
Oh, no!! More anger towards the US! If this keeps up they will be angry at us all the time..... Wait.... They already are angry at us all the time..... Darn.
This Bashir moron was on Al Jazeera during the Falluja fiasco praising the freedom fighters that were holding little girls and women in front of them as they shot from the mosques. I say F**K the Arabs. They are LIARS and SCUM. Any "moderate" Arab wishing to refute this should speak up about what is being done in their names, I won't hold my breath.
I think we need the equivalent...America swarms into Syria, Iraq and Iran....Saudia Arabia is on notice!
Because up until now, they've adored us.
That argument is so lame, so tired, and so typical.
The apologists for the Islamists need to understand that the rules have changed. That the handwringing pantywaists on the left don't control the direction of this country - they only matter when Jacksonian America doesn't perceive a threat.
Back at the beginning of the Cold War, a reporter asked Harry Truman what he was going to do. He answered that he'd try something. And if that didn't work, he'd try something else.
What he tried, in building a system to contain and to ultimately destroy Soviet Communism, didn't work perfectly. But it worked some, and over the succeeding decades we tried different things, until we were ultimately successful.
What we're trying in Iraq will most likely not succeed as well as we had hoped. But regardless of how successful it is, we will learn from our mistakes, and go on to deal, one by one, with the rest of the problem.
The apologists for the Islamists need to understand that we will win, in the end, even if it takes decades.
(The Islamists themselves don't need to understand anything - they just need to die).
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