Reply #15: I think you're Syriasly onto something...

[PurityOfEssence]

Once the "elections" have passed, he can pronounce great change and proceed to bellyache about the other evil Ba'athists next door. The boys from the PNAC want to pop Damascus so much it hurts, and we'll have the extra forces right there in the form of the IDF. Some crappy pretext will be blown out of proportion, and we'll have to act in defense of the Iraqi people about whom we care so much...

We did it to start the Mexican-American War, and Hitler did it to gin up some pretext against Poland, so it's a fine old tradition.

History will almost definitely show that we were moving to nail Syria in April of '03, but Iraq was coming apart at the seams and we just didn't have the troops to do it. REAL Nazis use concentrated and overwhelming force; ya don't pull no Blitzkrieg on the cheap. Our little prep-school Hitler and his merry band of looters really believe in their inherent superiority, and that'll hurt 'em in the long run.