Is Syria the next Iraq?

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http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FC12Ak04.html

<Even before US occupation forces settled into former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's palaces in Baghdad, the neo-conservatives who have set the direction of the Bush presidency's radical foreign and military policies were looking toward Syria. And before the month is out, US officials said on Wednesday, President Bush will announce new sanctions against Syria - accusing the northern neighbor of Israel, Lebanon and Iraq of many of the same offenses that were leveled against the Hussein regime in Iraq. The charge list includes developing biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction, condemning the US occupation of Iraq, supporting international terrorism and succoring anti-US and anti-Israeli guerrilla forces. >

<The neo-conservatives...have followed a similar strategy to advance their agenda for political transformation in Syria and Lebanon. In much the same way that they moved forward their agenda for regime change in Iraq step-by-step, the neo-con advocates for a radical transformation in the Middle East have, in the case of Syria and Lebanon, also formed a "front group" - the USCFL - and supported bipartisan legislation that would establish the political base for sanctions against Iraq - and eventual US military action. USCFL's page of "selected links" recommends just three lobbying organizations: the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations,the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and the Christian Coalition of America.>


<USCFL's core supporters, which it calls its "Golden Circle", include several members of the Bush administration: Elliott Abrams, Richard Perle, Paula Dobriansky, Michael Rubin and David Wurmser. Other prominent neo-cons in the Golden Circle include Daniel Pipes (Middle East Forum and US Institute for Peace), Frank Gaffney (Center for Security Policy), Jeane Kirkpatrick (American Enterprise Institute or AEI), Michael Ledeen (AEI), David Steinmann (Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs) and Eleana Benador (Middle East Forum). Also included in this circle of those who have donated US$1,000 or more to USCFL is Republican Eliot Engel, the congressional representative who was the main sponsor of the Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2003.>

< In 2000 Pipes co-authored a jingoistic report with Abdelnour that advocated the use of US military action to force Syria out of Lebanon and to disarm Syria of its alleged weapons of mass destruction. Virtually all 31 signatories of this MEF report, which was used to persuade Congress to introduce and pass the Syria Accountability Act, are USCFL members, and several became high officials or advisers in the Bush foreign policy team, including Abrams, Perle, Dobrianksy, Wurmser and Douglas Feith, the US Undersecretary of Defense for Policy. >