[JasonC]

Syria can get out of Lebanon immediately, hold free elections, stop harboring terrorists in the Bekka and in Lebanon, shut down their offices in Damascus, and stop the flow of terrorists into Iraq from the west. Then we can talk about what an important player in the middle east Syria is, and can encourage talks that include Israel. Or, Syria can remain an outlaw state that bullies whoever it can and commits murder at the slightest remove thinking it will always be untouchable, and then it will in the end be obliberated by the present tide of history. As for Russia, we can tell when a great power is an ally and a friend, and Russia is no friend or ally of the United States, for a very simple reason. It has not yet decided it prefers civilization to barbarism.

[American in Israel]

Russia is no friend or ally of the United States, for a very simple reason. It has not yet decided it prefers civilization to barbarism.

Indeed, and the presense of a lot of gold seems to appeal to its barbaric side.