SYRIA FEELING THE HEAT

DAILY STAR/LEBANON:

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says Syria has not responded to UN Security Council Resolution 1680's calls for establishing diplomatic relations with Lebanon and that Damascus continues to treat Lebanon as a "client."

In an interview aired Tuesday on the Dubai-based Al-Arabiyya television network, Rice urged Syria to "stop treating Lebanon like a client ... Treat it like a neighbor. Treat it like an independent and sovereign country and then we can move on to a more peaceful and prosperous future for the Lebanese people."

Commenting on last week's clashes between Fatah al-Intifada, a Palestinian militant grouped backed by Damascus, and the Lebanese Army in which one soldier was killed, the secretary said: "Obviously, Syria wasn't listening. The resolution didn't say support a single Palestinian faction within Lebanon. It said treat Lebanon as an independent and sovereign neighbor that deserves to have a border that is demarcated and delineated."

CSM:

Syria launches crackdown on dissent

The biggest wave of arrests since 2001 hits advocates of better ties with Lebanon.

By Rhonda Roumani | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

DAMASCUS, SYRIA – As if thumbing its nose at international pressure for democratic reform, Syria has jailed writers, activists, and intellectuals over the past week in a sweeping crackdown on internal dissent. While those here who speaks out against the government puts themselves at risk, activists say more people have been arrested in this latest wave than at any time since 2001. This crackdown, they say, is aimed mostly at signatories of a declaration demanding that Syria improve relations with Lebanon.

"There is a preventive war being launched by the government and the ostensible reason is that people talked about an issue that is considered taboo: Syrian-Lebanese relations," says Yassin Haj-Saleh, an opposition figure who also signed the declaration, but has not yet been arrested.

These two articles reveal that Assad is REALLY feeling the heat. These arrests are OBVIOUSLY cowardly defensive measures intended to prevent regime change. IT WON'T WORK: the UN and the US are united on this front, and moving INEXORABLY toward Assad's removal.

I believe that the UN report - due soon - will directly implicate Assad in the murder of Hariri, and that this will ultimately lead to his utter isolation by every Arab nation (except for Iran) and that this will lead to his downfall.

He will be replaced by better people - LESS aligned to Iran and Iran's jihadoterrorist STOOGES: Hamas and Hizballah (and the other GANGS of jihadothugs who operate in the immediate vicinity).

This will be YET ANOTHER truly extraordinary and historic AND POSITIVE change for the Middle East - another one which BUSH IS DIRECTLY REPSONSIBLE FOR, and for which he receives NO CREDIT from the MSM:

Like Syria's withdrawal from Lebanon - after 23 years (which includes all 8 of Clinton's accomplishmentLESS 2 terms). Like Libya's renunciation of terror and WMD. Like the isolation of Arafat. Like the expansion of democracy and sufferage in Kuwait, Sauid Arabia and Egypt. SURE: WE HAVE A LONG WAY TO GO! But never before ahs so mich good thinsg happened on so many fronts inthe Middle East.

I PREDICT: that in the generations to come GWB will be seen as the progenitor of democracy for another ONE BILLION people on Earth, and regarded as one of the most important world leaders of all-time.

NOTE: If the BDS-MSMers were to talk about the situation in Syria the way they do the situation in IRAQ, then they would "BLAME BUSH" for this recent wave of political arrests in Syria (and NOT BLAME ASSAD), saying: "Bush's policies are actually leading to the ARRESTS of pro-democratic forces in Syria and setting BACK the movement; Bush shouldn't anger Assad, he should 'dialogue' with him."

This is ESSENTAILLY what their criticism of Bush's policy on Iraq amounts to: blaming Bush for the actions of those who oppose democracy and oppose our efforts to liberate our brothers and sisters in the Middle East, and help them achieve their universal Human Rights.

I'd love it if the Left would blame the enemy more than Bush. But they are driven less by sympathy to their fellow human beings who suffer under tyranny, than by their partisan hatred of Bush and by their cognitive dissonance, (which is caused by the fact that the organizing principles of Leftist ideology have been thoroughly discredited - first by Deng Xiao Ping in China in 1980, and then by the collapse of the USSR, and then by the resurgence of the USA under Reagan, the UK under Thatcher, and Ireland and India under administrations which rolled back socialism and Reaganized their economies and tax structure - leading to record growth and recortd investment).

REMEMBER: All the countries which have - since 1980 - followed Hayek (and rejected Marx and his ilk) have bettered the standard of living for their people and enlarged individual liberty, (of course: prosperity is the by-product of liberty!) - but this has happened at the expense of the State, and Leftists just cannot accept this. This leads them to become emotionally unbalanced, and to irrationally attack those who undermine their most basic beliefs in displays which are energized by classical cognitive dissonance. CD is what fuels their hatred and their denial.

That's why, even after Assad falls, these BDS afflicted Lefties will probably not be able to admit that they were wrong. Just as they now say that Iraq was better/safer under Saddam, they will argue that Assad was stabilizing, and that the inevitable chaos and power-plays which will result when Assad falls should have been anticipated, and would have been better avoided if there had only been better planning, or if we had just let "well enough" alone.

BAH HUMBUG! Tyrants like Assad, and Saddam never go without a push. And besides that, we have given Assad EVERY OPPORTUNITY to change. Just as we did Saddam.

But enough is enough. For Assad and his allies on the Left; (and this is true literally and figurativelt, for Assad is a Baathist and Baathism is a variant of socialism ad socialism is a variant of Leftism). The clock is ticking... on Assad, and on the Left, too!

Remember: IF YOU WANT TO MAKE POVERTY AND TYRANNY HISTORY, THEN YOU HAVE TO MAKE THE LEFT HISTORY!