Syria Policy Reveals Neocon Power

Jim Lobe -- In the clamor over Iraq in September was a significant White House appointment that went entirely unnoticed in the U.S. media. The appointment of David Wurmser as Dick Cheney's adviser on the Middle East last month was an ominous sign of the continuing dominance of neoconservatives over George Bush's foreign policy, despite his plunging poll numbers and widespread criticism over Iraq.

With the vice-president increasingly seen as the dominant force shaping U.S. foreign policy – often publicly contradicing his own president's attempts to soften his "axis of evil" rhetoric – Wurmser's new post spells bad news for the Baath-led government of Syria.

Tensions with Syria have been escalating rapidly thanks most recently to the U.S. decision to veto a UN Security Council resolution deploring an Israeli air attack on an alleged Palestinian camp in Syria earlier this month. It was the first attack by Israel on Syrian territory since the 1973 war. The veto coincided with the approval by the House of Representatives of a bill that would impose new economic and diplomatic sanctions against Syria.

Washington's one-two punch against President Bashar Assad was precisely what prominent neo-con groups have been calling for since the mid-1990s. Nor could anyone miss the fact that the campaign against Syria is eerily similar to the political offensive launched last year to build the case for war on Iraq. Some of the charges are almost identical: that Syria supports terrorism, is developing weapons of mass destruction (WMD), and represses its own people. White House leaks this week claimed that Damascus was holding as much as $3 billion for Saddam Hussein some of which, according to unnamed sources, may be used to fund attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq.

Washington's emerging Syria policy also highlights the growing convergence between the strategic aims of the Bush administration and Sharon's government, especially now that the U.S. military is directly engaged in military operations in the heart of the Middle East. This foreign policy union is precisely what the U.S. neo-cons and the Likudniks have sought for the past quarter century.