Looks like the same "imaginary WMD" that were the main "excuse" for Invading Iraq will also cost Syria dear in the shape of the usual innocent civilians.

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2946625.stm

**US attention turns to Syria


Paul Reynolds
BBC News Online World Affairs correspondent



After the fall of Saddam Hussein, the United States is
turning its attention to Syria.

There are fears across the Arab world that one day American
guns might be turned on Syria, too; and that, even if they are not, American policy will be directed towards reshaping the Arab world just as Britain and France did after World War I.

The British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw says that Syria is
not "next on the list" after Iraq.

But the Americans are certainly angry with Syria and are
making specific charges. The two most immediate are
connected to the war.

The first is that Syria has
helped Iraq over the past few
months by providing equipment
such as night vision goggles
and by allowing Syrian and
other fighters to enter Iraq to
fight for Saddam Hussein's
forces.

The second is that Syria is giving refuge to senior associates of Saddam Hussein.

Charges denied

The US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld summed up the
American attitude saying: "The (Syrian) government's making
a lot of bad mistakes, a lot of bad judgment calls, in my view, and they're associating with the wrong people."

There are two further charges against Syria. One is that it is developing chemical weapons and the other that it continues to help or harbour those whom the US regards as terrorists - the Lebanese Hezbollah and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and
Hamas in particular.

Syria remains on the US list of
"states sponsoring terrorism."

Syria has denied the first three
charges by saying that it has
not helped Iraq, that is not
hiding any senior Iraqi figures,
(indeed that historically it has
been hostile to Saddam
Hussein, which is certainly the
case), and that it has no
chemical weapons programme.

As for the fourth charge, it says that the groups named by
the US maintain only "press offices" in Damascus.

Domino effect

American attitudes towards Syria appear to be part of a wider
policy. There are some in the Bush administration who favour
the advancement of democracy in the region through the
"democratic domino" effect which is supposed to follow the
establishment of representative government in Iraq.

Their view was reflected in Britain in an article in the London
Times by William Rees-Mogg who declared: "The American
victory on Iraq is a warning to the tyrants and terrorists of
the world. The momentum of liberty continues to accelerate."

Others in Washington simply think that now is the time to
exert American influence in the region, whether democracy
happens or not.

Force unlikely

Syria is generally regarded in Washington as an ossified regime
despite the arrival of the young President Bashar al-Assad. He
is seen as continuing the policies, certainly the foreign
policies, of his father.

Unlike Britain, which prefers an
active but discreet dialogue
with Damascus, the US prefers
to make its demands very
publicly.

Jonathan Stevenson, Senior
Fellow at the International
Institute for Strategic Studies
in London said that he did not
think that the US would use
military force against Syria.

"Even the Bush administration would think that unduly
provocative," he told BBC News Online, "having alienated
swathes of Arab opinion by not getting the second resolution
for action against Iraq."

However, he did think that the US would give "more attention
to Hezbollah."

"And Syria is Hezbollah's landlord," he added.

Israeli pressure

Israeli is certainly hoping for pressure on Syria. The Israeli
Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz has said that Israel has a "long
list of issues that we are thinking of demanding of the
Syrians."

"It starts with removing the Hezbollah threat from southern
Lebanon," he said. Israel has for long accused Syria of
fomenting trouble along its border with Lebanon by supporting
Hezbollah.

Syria itself sees the hand of
Israel behind the American
attitude and suspects that the
US is now picking off the
enemies of Israel one by one to
facilitate a settlement with the
Palestinians along Israeli lines.

Dr Buthamiah Sha'ban of the
Syrian Foreign Ministry said
that US accusations against
Syria emanated from Israel,
which she described as the "main instigator" in harming
US-Syrian relations.

Whatever the origin of the policy, Syria is in the frame. And
perhaps Iran will follow.