SYRIAN-IRAQI BORDER UPDATE

Doug Jehl of the NYTIMES has an excellent article on the current status of the Syrian-Iraqi border problem.

EXCERPTS:

The Bush administration is considering imposing new sanctions on Syria to prod it to crack down on Iraqis there who are providing financial and logistical support to insurgents in Iraq, senior American counterterrorism officials said Tuesday. [...] Syria has long been subject to limited economic sanctions by the United States because of its designation by the State Department as a sponsor of terrorism. Under pressure from Congress, the Bush administration imposed additional measures last spring that prohibit exports to Syria of most goods, excluding food and medicine, and prohibit commercial flights between the United States and Syria by Syrian-owned aircraft. [...] The American officials would speak about Syria only on condition of anonymity, saying they did not want their comments to overshadow recent public remarks by Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the top American commander in Iraq, Richard L. Armitage, the deputy secretary of state, and others. The officials interviewed represented several government agencies involved in counterterrorism policy, including those favoring a more patient approach toward Syria and those urging a harder line. [...] A second counterterrorism official said there remained "a wide range of views" within the administration about taking further action against Syria, with the State Department most opposed. The official said the Pentagon in particular was pressing for a more aggressive approach. "This is not the Ho Chi Minh trail that's keeping the insurgency alive," the official said. "But if Syria were to take action, it would have an impact."

I think the status-quoists of the pro-Arab US State Department are - in effect - running interference for Assad and prolonging the bloody reactionary "Baathist/Jihadist/pan-Arabist" counter-revolution in Iraq. The sooner we get tougher on Syria - and Iran - the sooner Iraq will become a stable democracy. SO.... WHY WAIT!? We should be tough and unambiguous; we should issue ULTIMATUMS to both Syria and Iran: "Close your borders or we will mine them and attack and destroy your military assets with missiles."

NOTE: The blithe way the State Department official discounts the importance of cracking down on the Syrian-Iraqi border is truly MIND-BLOWING; ("... if Syria were to take action, it would have an impact.")!

After all, the infiltrations are a major reason why we are taking so many casualties! We MUST do whatever we can do in order to protect our troops; THIS OPEN BORDER IS MORE DANGEROUS TO OUR TROOPS THAN LACK OF ARMORED HUMMERS! So: LET'S GET AS TOUGH AS WE HAVE TO GET, AND NOW!

AND THAT MEANS: NO MORE HALF-MEASURES - LIKE MORE SANCTIONS; WE MUST PUT TEETH INTO OUR BARK - AND NOW!

UPDATE: the WASH TIMES get it: "...the behavior of the Syrian regime does not merit gentle treatment. Far from it, Syria should be read the riot act. Syria continues to support Hezbollah and Palestinian terrorist groups determined to sabotage the Jan. 9 elections scheduled to take place in the West Bank and Gaza. And it continues to subvert Iraq through its support of the terrorist insurgency there. "