United States inching towards regime change in Syria

[Judi Lynn]

United States inching towards regime change in Syria

* Former US official says Asad’s regime may not be able to recover from the blow and consequently begin to unravel

By Khalid Hasan

WASHINGTON: A former US official said on Monday the Bush administration was inching more and more towards a regime change in Syria.

Flynt Leverett, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, who has just published a book on Syria – Inheriting Syria: Bashar’s trial by fire - told a seminar that the thinking was that with the departure of the Syrian army from Lebanon, the Bashar al-Asad regime may not be able to recover from the blow and consequently begin to unravel.

He pointed out that when a senior State Department official was asked on a recent radio programme if the US now out to change the Syrian regime, she did not offer an answer. He said the course on which the administration was embarked carried “unintended consequences”. The administration wanted to achieve regime change in Damascus “on the cheap”.
(snip)

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersch told the seminar that there was not much give in the Bush administration’s policy that saw Bashar al-Asad the same way it saw Saddam Hussein. It would, as such, want him to go. The “game plan”, he added, is the “redoing of the Middle East”.

It is also the view in Washington that Iraq cannot be controlled without controlling Iran, he stressed. He said after 9/11, Syria provided invaluable intelligence to Washington that saved American lives. He added that the Bush administration does not see the world in terms of “nuances” and some of its policies defied logic.
(snip/...)

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_27-4-2005_pg4_2

[davidinalameda]

1. why don't we just invade every country there

the bombings will start in 10 minutes!

[cornermouse]

3. Not funny.

From what I've seen, they're crazy enough to do it.

[shanti]

12. sure are

and as i'm sure you are aware of now, it's all in the PNAC.

[Worst Username Ever]

2. Lets just keep bombing them until they like us!

[Just Me]

4. Grrrrr,...

,...

[Save The World]

5. If Assad is seen as weak

Syria may well be on its way to a coup or possibly civil war wnd the opposition may well be worse than Assad. If it looks like radical Islamists (the kind of people who would look to immediately re-occupy Lebanon and start a war with Israel) may gain control in Syria, the U.S. may feel that it has to intervene, either on Assad's behalf or immediately after he loses power so that Syria's significant chemical weapons stores don't suddenly "disappear." As bad as Baathist Syria is, the alternative may be worse. There's no pro-democracy movement there (as there is in Iran, for example).

[hatrack]

7. Radical Islamists - who were slaughtered by the thousands by Assad's Dad

No one has firm numbers, but most analysts think that at least 20 - 25,000 were killed by the Syrian army when Hafez Assad leveled the city of Hama in 1982, then held by the Islamic Brotherhood.

Other estimates go as high as 40,000 killed. On edit: of those killed, thousands were civilians, along with rebel forces.

Yeah, lots and lots of support for Assad in that neck of the woods, I'm SURE . . .

[Save The World]

19. That was my point

The people who might try to remove Assad might be worse than he is and both the U.S. and Israel might feel like allowing them to gain control of Syria, its military and its WMDs is not an option.

[Bridget Burke]

22. So the continuing quest for WMD will lead to another invasion...

Iraq has done so well lately!

[Save The World]

24. I think that you missed my point

It has little to do with WMDs, though Syria is not secretive about the fact that they have them. WMD's or no WMD's, if Islamist radicals take over the Syrian government and military, a large scale regional war involving Lebanon, Israel and possibly several other countries becomes very, very likely.

[leveymg]

6. Unintended consequences. Look at what happened afterJordan expelled

the PLO in 1970. Remember the "Black September" organization. Everyone should (recall the Munich '72 Olympics?) What does BushCo-Sharon, Ltd. think is going to happen when someone tries to push Hezb'allah out of the Bekka Valley? What happens if they succeed, and the movement splinters? Who was Abu Nidhal?

One might as well blast open the gates of hell with Semtex, and then try to force the door closed again. We're all going to regret this monsterously botched effort at "regime change".

There are people in Washington and Jerusalem who would apparently welcome another 9/11 right about now. Or worse.


:nuke:

[davidinalameda]

8. he's hoping something will happen

gives him a perfect excuse for yet another war to cover up his failures in Iraq and at home

[leftchick]

9. I was listening to teo of them this morning on cspan 2

cliff may and michael ledeen. The are STILL talking the same neo-con shit they were 4 years ago. It was frightening.

[Just Me]

10. Geez, I'm glad I missed that.

I wish I could expose the neoCONs for the tyrants that they are,...actually, the worse tyrants, EVER,...'cause they are even more crafty and manipulative and cunning than those before them.

[leftchick]

16. good god!

please excuse the typos in my post. :wow:

That is what I get for posting without my glasses! :crazy:

[xchrom]

11. when you don't know what else to do -- bomb somebody...

or get somebody else to do your bombing for you.

[Karenina]

13. How 'bout a "regime" change

inna "Murikkka???" :SIGH:

[alcuno]

14. "Iraq cannot be controlled without controlling Iran."

So basically, Iraq cannot be controlled.

[Just Me]

15. PNAC: control Iraq, Iran & Syria.

What really blows my mind is that, PNAC is FUCKING PUBLISHED!!! (I'm sorry for the foul word,...but it is appropriate in these circumstances).

The information is out there for the WHOLE WORLD to read!!!

These power-mongering imperialists are ON THE RECORD!!!

:shrug:

WTF?

I guess, these days, the influential ones simply sell their souls and democracy and the "rule of law" and humanity; the rest of are enslaved to a path which is not of our own choosing and WORSE not even within the realm of our knowledge or reality since such facts are intentionally being withheld from us.

Isn't such things an incredible betrayal of both our people and democracy?

Outrageous,...but true.

[mongo]

17. The people just don't care.

To most, the idea of manifest destiny is alive and well. What they won't give us we'll take by force.

It's our oil under that sand because we need it. If they won't let us drill for it, we'll make 'em. We know better than those savages anyway.

As long as the Bush administration can keep the body bags from comming back in droves, this will continue. And nobody really cares. Even if they don't want to fight a war for Exxon, they think those smart people in Washington (well the repubs anyway), know whats best for us.

And they have Rush, Hannity, O'Reily, Beck, etc.etc.etc. telling them they're right.

[The Stranger]

21. The people? Care?

A SQUAT grey building of only thirty-four stories. Over the main entrance the words, CENTRAL LONDON HATCHERY AND CONDITIONING CENTRE, and, in a shield, the World State's motto, COMMUNITY, IDENTITY, STABILITY.

[Massacure]

18. How so? I don't see the similarities.

[tanyev]

20. So is the chaos in Iraq evidence of the errors in their thinking,

or is chaos an acceptable outcome for them? I can't make up my mind. You would think they would be scared of the possible ramifications of total chaos throughout the Middle East. (I know I am.) But they seem hell-bent on creating it.

[ZR2]

23. I thought Iran was next on the list

the bombing is aupposed to begin in June.