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The Syrian primary

Monday, 18th February 2008

In the week that the Hezbollah terrorist mastermind Imad Mugniyah was killed in Damascus, it turns out that advisers to both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, the Israel-bashing Zbigniew Brzezinski for Obama and Hassan Nemazee for Clinton, both fetched up in Syria too. What in the world were they doing, in the middle of an American presidential campaign, in a place listed by the US State Department as a terrorist-sponsoring state? asked the New York Sun. No-one in the Clinton camp provided an answer. As for Brzezinski, he himself

issued a statement to the Ba’athist controlled press in Damascus, where he was quoted by the official Sana News Agency as saying that the ‘talks dealt with recent regional developments, affirming that both sides have a common desire to achieve stability in the region, which would benefit both its people and the United States.’

But what can the US have in common with Syria, a key component of the axis of evil and the operational ally of Iran? As the NYS asks: Where is the sense of reality about who President Assad is and what his regime is all about?

To suggest, as the Syrians report Mr. Brzezinski said, that they share some kind of common interest in respect of ‘stability’ is disingenuous…Where do they stand in respect of Syria — and why can't they bring themselves to explain what their advisers are doing in the capital of one of the countries most hostile to America and Israel?

It would be nice if the rest of the US media could tear itself away from the spectacle of Hillary v Princess Obama and start asking such questions too.

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field

February 18th, 2008 12:43am

There was a very good series of articles over on the Harry's Place website written by a student of Arabic who'd spent some time in the country. A bit of an eye opener really - not the sort of thing one would get on the mainstream media. One interesting part was a piece on the Syrian Socialist National Party, which as its name suggests is really a Nazi-style party that seeks a Greater Syria (including Palestine). It forms part of the official coalition that runs the country. The general impression I got from the articles is that Syrians generally aren't too serious about wanting to sacrifice themselves in the struggle against Israel - things aren't too bad as they are. But they are more than willing to get other people (various terrorists in various countries) to do their dirty work for them. They are different from the Iranians in that sense I feel. The Iranians also use proxies. But I think the Shia grievance machine still produces the martyr mentality which makes them (or more accurately, a substantial section of them) ready to take on Israel.