- Getting out of the political quicksand of Iraq, or at
least burying the bloody occupation as an embarrassing daily news item,
is mission number one for the Bush campaign.
-
- Extricating U.S. troops and political capital from the
mess the Bush administration created in Iraq may be mission impossible.
But the president,s political and ideological handlers have proved adept
at spinning the administration out of scandals and misadventures. Their
operating principle, which they enshrined as official national security
strategy, seems to be: the best defense is a good offense.
-
-
- When you are down in the polls and the "bring em
on machismo no longer seems to get the patriotic rise it first did, the
Bush team doesn,t retreat. It advances with more tough words backed by
military muscle and missionary zeal. The Bush administration still has
an itchy trigger finger, and is in search of another evildoer to confront.
-
-
- Even before the U.S. occupation forces settled into Saddam
Hussein,s palaces in Baghdad, the neoconservatives who have set the direction
of the Bush presidency,s radical foreign and military policies were looking
toward Syria. Before the month is out, it,s likely that President Bush
will announce new sanctions against Syria--accusing the northern neighbor
of Israel, Lebanon, and Iraq of many of the same offenses that were leveled
against the Hussein regime in Iraq. The charge list includes developing
biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction, condemning the U.S.
occupation of Iraq, supporting international terrorism, and succoring anti-U.S.
and anti-Israel guerrilla forces.
-
-
- Immediately before the Iraq invasion, Undersecretary
of State for Arms Control and International Security traveled to Israel
and promised Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that "it will be necessary
to deal with threats from Syria, Iran, and North Korea afterwards. In April
2003 Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz warned: "There's got
to be a change in Syria."
-
-
- Road to Damascus
-
-
- The road to Damascus, which is at the center of the Bush
administration,s roadmap for restructuring the Middle East, doesn,t run
directly from Baghdad. Its starting points are in Washington, Jerusalem/Tel
Aviv, and Beirut--charted by the neoconservative think-tanks, the Christian
Right, and the right-wing Zionists who move easily back and forth between
Capitol Hill and the Middle East.
-
-
- The neoconservatives harbor a deep sense of history--one
that is shaped, they say, by the forces of good and evil and the righteous
and the appeasers. For the neocons, history also teaches the virtues of
certain political strategies, such as the necessity of establishing bipartisan
front groups and establishing the legislative foundation for their agendas.
-
-
- One of the key figures who has set Washington on the
road to Damascus is Ziad K. Abdelnour, an expatriate investment banker
from Lebanon who, together with neocon supporters of Israel,s Likud Party
and the Christian Right, established the U.S. Committee for a Free Lebanon
(USCFL) in 1997.
-
-
- The USCFL describes itself as the "cyber-center
for Pro-Lebanon Activism. USCFL was one of the leading proponents of the
"Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act of
2003, which calls for a series of sanctions against Syria and which President
Bush signed on December 12, 3003.
-
-
- Like Ahmad Chalabi, chief of the London-based and U.S.-financed
Iraqi National Congress (INC), the USCFL,s Abdelnour is an expatriate investment
banker. He has lobbied the Bush administration and the U.S. Congress for
a U.S. foreign policy that mirrors the hard-line position of Israel,s Likud
Party. Working closely with neocon supporters on Capitol Hill in the late
1990s, Chalabi helped persuade Congress to pass the Iraq Liberation Act
of 1998, which provided support for the Iraqi National Congress and other
anti-Saddam Hussein forces. The Iraq Liberation Act of 1998 set the bipartisan
foundation for a military-induced regime change in Iraq. In the lead-up
to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, necon polemicists such as Richard Perle,
William Kristol, and Bruce Jackson created the Committee for the Liberation
of Iraq (CLI) to consolidate bipartisan support for the preventive war.
-
-
- The neoconservatives, strongly backed the right-wing
Zionist lobby through such groups as the Orthodox Union and the Jewish
Institute for National Security Affairs, have followed a similar strategy
to advance their agenda for political transformation in Syria and Lebanon.
In much the same way that they moved forward their agenda for regime change
in Iraq step by step, the neocon advocates for a radical transformation
in the Middle East have in the case of Syria and Lebanon also formed a
"front group--USCFL--and supported bipartisan legislation that establish
the political base for sanctions against Iraq--and eventual U.S. military
action. USCFL,s page of "selected links recommends just three lobbying
organizations: Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations,
American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and Christian Coalition of America.
(4)
-
-
- USCFL, a self-described "non-profit, non-sectarian
think tank, states that it aims to rid the Middle East of "dictatorships,
radical ideologies, existential conflicts, border disagreements, political
violence, and weapons of mass destruction and to do so while abiding with
the tenets of the Charter of the United Nations. (5) (6)
-
-
- USCFL,s core supporters, which it calls its "Golden
Circle, include several members of the Bush administration: Elliott Abrams,
Richard Perle, Paula Dobriansky, Michael Rubin, and David Wurmser. Other
prominent neocons in the Golden Circle include Daniel Pipes (Middle East
Forum and U.S. Institute for Peace), Frank Gaffney (Center for Security
Policy), Jeane Kirkpatrick (AEI) , Michael Ledeen (AEI), David Steinmann
(Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs), and Eleana Benador (Middle
East Forum). Also included in this circle of those who have donated $1,000
or more to USCFL is Rep. Eliot Engel (R-NY), the congressional representative
who was the main sponsor of the Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty
Restoration Act of 2003.
-
-
- The USCFL lists Amin Gemayel, who as Lebanon's president
in 1983 signed an aborted peace treaty with Israel, as a leading supporter.
Although there are a few Muslims in USCFL,s Golden Circle, most of the
Lebanese-Americans associated with USCFL are Christian, including Abdelnour.
In its selected links, USCFL includes the Guardians of the Cedars, a fascistic
Christian Right Lebanese organization that has a military wing. The large
majority of USCFL supporters, however, are Jewish-Americans.
-
-
- USCFL may be "non-sectarian, but its list of core
supporters and the "pro-Lebanon groups listed on its website signal
its neoconservative and pro-Likud sympathies. Among the organizations interlocked
with USCFL,s Golden Circle include Foundation for the Defense of Democracies
(FDD), American Enterprise Institute (AEI), Project for the New American
Century (PNAC), Center for Security Policy (CSP), Middle East Forum, Hudson
Institute, and Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA).
-
-
- In 1999 Abdelnour founded the Middle East Intelligence
Bulletin (MEIB), which is the USCFL,s monthly online publication. Michael
Rubin is on the editorial board and Gary C. Gambill, an associate with
the Middle East Forum and Freedom House, is the editor. In 2002, Daniel
Pipes of the Middle East Forum (MEF) became a co-publisher of MEIB. The
MEIB concentrates on "internal political developments in the Middle
East, especially those that are thinly covered in other English-language
publications. (In 2000 Pipes coauthored a jingoistic report with Abdelnour
that advocated the use of U.S. military action to force Syria out of Lebanon
and to disarm Syria of its alleged weapons of mass destruction. Virtually
all 31 signatories of this MEF report, which was used to persuade Congress
to introduce and pass the Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty
Restoration Act in 2003, are USCFL members, and several became high officials
or advisers in the Bush foreign policy team, including Abrams, Perle, Feith,
Dobrianksy, and Wurmser.
-
-
- The 2000 report by Pipes and Abdelnour concluded that
that "Syrian rule in Lebanon stands in direct opposition to American
ideals." It strongly criticized Washington's policy of engaging Syria
rather than confronting it. The Lebanon Study Group of the Middle East
Forum advocated harsh economic and diplomatic sanctions. "The Vietnam
legacy and the sour memories of dead American Marines in Beirut notwithstanding,"
the group observed, "the United States has entered a new era of undisputed
military supremacy coupled with an appreciable drop in human losses on
the battlefield." Finally, said the report, "If there is to be
decisive action, it will have to be sooner rather than later."
-
-
- The Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration
Act of 2003, which received overwhelming support in both the House and
the Senate, is a public law that aims: "To halt Syrian support for
terrorism, end its occupation of Lebanon, stop its development of weapons
of mass destruction, cease its illegal importation of Iraqi oil and illegal
shipments of weapons and other military items to Iraq, and by so doing
hold Syria accountable for the serious international security problems
it has caused in the Middle East, and for other purposes. It is designed
to punish Damascus for its alleged links to terrorist groups and its alleged
efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction. It bans all transfers of
"dual-use technology to Syria. In addition, the act recommends an
arsenal of sanctions against Syria, including: reducing diplomatic contacts
with Syria, banning U.S. exports (except food and medicine) to Syria, prohibiting
U.S. businesses from investing or operating in Syria, restricting the travel
of Syrian diplomats in the United States, banning Syrian aircraft from
operating in the United States, and freezing Syrian assets in the United
States. Although the bill obligates the executive branch to enact at least
two of the recommended sanctions, it does permit the president to waive
the sanctions if it is determined that they would harm U.S. national security.
-
-
- USCFL commended Rep. Engel for his leadership in moving
the bill through the House, and also expressed its special appreciation
for the strong support provided by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), and
to Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Rick Santorum (R-PA) "for pioneering
it in the Senate. (1)
-
-
- The appointment of David Wurmser, a long-time advocate
of U.S. military action against Syria, to the staff of Vice President Cheney
in September 2003, followed by the president,s signing of the Syria Accountability
act in December were widely regarded as another signal that the U.S. regional
restructuring crusade might soon be embarking on the road to Damascus.
If the president imposes sanctions against Syria rather than attempting
to engage it through diplomatic channels, it,s likely that the Syrian regime
will be painted with the same fear-mongering brush used to justify the
invasion of Iraq. With Osama bin Laden still on the lam and bedlam in occupied
Iraq, the Bush administration needs to refocus public attention on another
evildoer--which, not so coincidently, is also the next preferred target
of the Likudniks in Israel.
-
-
- Tom Barry is Policy Director of the Interhemispheric
Resource Center (IRC).
-
- Notes:
-
- (1) "Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, Right
Web Profiles, January 2004.
-
- (2) United States Committee for a Free Lebanon: Home
Page
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- (3) Daniel Pipes and Ziad Abdelnour, Ending Syria,s Occupation
of Lebanon: The U.S. Role? Middle East Forum, 2000
-
- (4) Jim Lobe, "Calls to Attack Syria Come from a
Familiar Choir of Hawks, Foreign Policy in Focus, April 16, 2003
-
- (5) "Syria Accountability and Lebanese Restoration
Act
-
- (6) Ian Williams, "Road to Damascus, Foreign Policy
In Focus, November 24, 2003
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- Published by the Right Web Program at the Interhemispheric
Resource Center (IRC). ©2004. All rights reserved. Republished with
permission.
-
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the Guerrilla News Forum
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- http://www.guerrillanews.com/war_on_terrorism/doc4063.html
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