Hillary Clinton gives a class on how to tiptoe around Middle East Dictators:
"We have expressed directly to the Syrian government ... in the strongest possible terms our concerns about these stories that do suggest there has been some transfer of weapons technology into Syria with the potential purpose of then later transferring it to Hezbollah," Clinton told a joint news conference with Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet. [emphasis added]And of course, there are excellent reasons for all this:
"This is not some kind of reward for the Syrians and the actions that they take which are deeply disturbing," Clinton said. "It's a tool that we believe can give us extra leverage, added insight, analysis, information with respect to Syria's actions and intentions."Extra leverage--Just how much has the US had so far--or used?
Added insight, analysis and information--Into a country that assassinates Lebanese leaders and is working on developing nuclear power?
Come on--the US had "insight, analysis and information" that Iraqi arms were being taken into Syria in 2003, before the Iraqi war--yet did not use "extra leverage" to do anything about it.
The US is treating Syria as a player--and that is exactly what they are doing: playing the US along.
Technorati Tag: Syria.
I'm glad america talks again with its "enemy" states. That's much better than to go to war with them. If only Bush would have talked to Iraq before the war...
ReplyDeleteThe problem with that of course is that you are recommending talking with a country whose government killed between 7,000-40,000 in the Hamas massacre, and has been connected to the murder of Hariri and others.
ReplyDeleteBlinding recommending talking to dictators without any sense of the historical background is pointless, especially when after decades of following such advice has done nothing but encourage Syria to continue supporting terrorism.