Thursday, April 17, 2003



Oh, they're good

Syria has introduced a draft UN security council resolution to rid the Middle East of weapons of mass destruction. This would include Syria's supplies of chemical weapons... and Israel's nukes. Daily Kos has an excellent analysis on this, and how it's a foreign policy disaster for the US - they'll be forced to veto to protect Israel, and as a result:

In one fell swoop, Syria has negated the charges of WMDs against it, exposed the US's hypocrisy on WMDs (our allies can have them, everyone else can't), solidified its leadership of the Arab world, and forced the US to veto a seemingly common sense resolution, after blasting France and Russia for threatening vetoes on Iraq.

I have to admire the Syrians for pulling a stunt like this. They may be an authoritarian regime with a really shitty human rights record, but at least they can play politics properly.

And on the other hand, will a US veto really matter? Sure, it will enjoin the US in the court of global public opinion from using WMDs as a pretext to attack Syria - but I think the US has already shown it doesn't accept the jurisdiction of that court. The story will be spun at home, presented as a "cynical ploy" by the Syrians (which it is), the whole hypocrisy angle will be ignored (or drowned in crys of "anti-semitism"), and the war-plans will keep on being made...

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