Sy Hersh’s latest in the New Yorker:
American intelligence and State Department officials have told me that by early 2002 Syria had emerged as one of the C.I.A.’s most effective intelligence allies in the fight against Al Qaeda, providing an outpouring of information that came to an end only with the invasion of Iraq.
“There is no security relationship now,†a Syrian foreign-ministry official told me. “It saddens us as much as it saddens you. We could give you information on organizations that we don’t think should exist. If we help you on Al Qaeda, we are helping ourselves.†He added, almost plaintively, that if Washington had agreed to discuss certain key issues in a back channel, “we’d have given you more. But when you publicly try to humiliate a country it’ll become stubborn.†[...]
Robert Baer, a retired C.I.A. officer who served in Syria and is the author of a new book, “Sleeping with the Devil,†on Washington’s relationship with the Saudis, agreed that the Syrians had more to offer. “The Syrians know that the Saudis were involved in the financing of the Muslim Brotherhood, and they for sure know the names,†Baer told me.
“Up through January of 2003, the coöperation was topnotch,†a former State Department official said. “Then we were going to do Iraq, and some people in the Administration got heavy- handed. They wanted Syria to get involved in operational stuff having nothing to do with Al Qaeda and everything to do with Iraq. It was something Washington wanted from the Syrians, and they didn’t want to do it.â€
Differences over Iraq “destroyed the Syrian bet,†said Ghassan Salamé, a professor of international relations at Paris University who served, until April, as Lebanon’s minister of culture. “They bet that they could somehow find the common ground with America. They bet all on coöperation with America.†A Defense Department official who has been involved in Iraq policy told me that the Syrians, despite their differences with Washington, had kept Hezbollah quiet during the war in Iraq. This was, he said, “a signal to us, and we’re throwing it away. The Syrians are trying to communicate, and we’re not listening.â€
It’s ironic.
We should ask Dubya to tell Condi to call Kofi
to get him to get people to stop this shit.
Big time.
[...] You know what I mean? Unfortunately, in the episode I’m referring to, hundreds and thousands could die. Developing new allies is wise. Betraying them is a foreign policy weakness, just another new way Republicans have developed to lose the War for American Security. [...]
Give me a break! You’re missing the entire point of not dealing with Syria.
1. Given a choice between Syria and Iraq, it’s Iraq first, then Syria.
2. The fact that we missed an opportunity for Syria to pull the leash on Hezbollah is typical of liberal thinking: take the easy way out and damn the consequences.
Hezbollah must be destroyed!
I don’t want ‘em leashed. I want ‘em dead.
3. I hope the days are past when we no longer feel compelled to sell out to scumbag regimes like that in Syria. Granted, we have a ways to go - especially if liberals keep getting in the way of domestic oil drilling.
Finally, if any political side is trying to deep-six our country in the war on militant Islam, look no farther than your buds at the New York Times, Daily Kos, Code Pink Women for Peace, Moveon.org, Senator Durbin, etc.
And I know that you know what I’m talking about.
Our enemies use their soundbites for resolve.