The last Baathist

National Post ^ | December 02 2003

[knighthawk]

It is generally hard to find anything good to say about Bashar Assad. But the Syrian dictator surprised us over the weekend when he handed Turkey 22 Islamists suspected of involvement in the horrific Istanbul synagogue bombings of Nov. 15. Might this gesture reflect a newfound understanding of Syria's position in the world?

Syria is bordered by Israel, Turkey, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon. Two of those five -- Israel and Turkey -- are Western-friendly democracies; Iraq will soon be a third; and Jordan is leaning in the same direction. The despotic Baathist ideology Syria shared with Saddamite Iraq has been discredited in the eyes of the Arab world. International attention is increasingly being focused on Syria's three-decade-old occupation of Lebanon. Meanwhile, Mr. Assad's Soviet-era military is rusting away, even as Israeli planes bomb his territory in retaliation for the actions of his terrorist proxies. The U.S. Congress has passed the Syria Accountability Act, legislation that threatens to slap sanctions on Damascus unless it renounces its rogue ways. And the Syrian economy, already in the gutter, has had one of its last remaining lifelines ripped out -- the 200,000 barrels of bargain-basement Iraqi oil that Saddam Hussein shipped to Syria daily in contravention of international law.

The country, in other words, is between a rock and a hard place.

Since Mr. Assad came to power in 2000, he's talked tough with Israel -- far tougher than his more level-headed father Hafez, who had a more realistic understanding of the two nations' relative military power. Lately, however, he's sounded like a man fishing for a deal. In an interview published in yesterday's New York Times, Mr. Assad called for the United States to kickstart negotiations between Syria and Israel, and said he hopes for democratic elections soon in Iraq. This reflects a change in tone from the comments he made in early 2003, when he was openly advocating a strong Iraqi resistance to coalition forces, and even facilitated the influx of jihadis and the outflux of Saddamite apparatchiks on the lam.

Peace negotiations between Israel and Syria have been frozen since 1999. At that time, Ehud Barak became exasperated with Assad Sr., who demanded that Israel withdraw from the Golan Heights, but was vague about what he would supply in return. If his son truly does want peace, he must come to the table with more than just a formal end to the state of war between the two nations. He must cut all Syrian support -- diplomatic, military, economic and logistical -- for terrorist groups operating in the West Bank, Gaza and Lebanon.

Of course, such a deal would be just a start. For Syria to end its status as a rogue state, Mr. Assad would also have to renounce Baathism, democratize his country and end its colonial-style occupation of Lebanon. Perhaps, with Mr. Assad's small gestures of reasonableness, we are witnessing the beginning of all this. Certainly, peace-loving nations would like to hope so.

[knighthawk]

Ping

[Cicero]

It depends who asks. If Turkey asks, Syria gives them what they want. If Canada asked, they'd tell them to go fly a kite. In other words, when you ask, you had better mean it.

[Keith]

...and this kind of change is the TRUE legacy of our invasion of Iraq...it's a good thing.