Posturing on SyriaTHE SANCTIONS President Bush imposed on Syria Tuesday will have little impact economically. Bush chose the least punitive of the possible penalties proposed in the Syrian Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act, which he signed last December. In his executive order implementing that act, Bush waived more-substantive sanctions in "the interest of national security." It is hard to avoid the conclusion that Bush wants merely to send symbolic messages -- one for domestic hard-liners and backers of Israel and another for the regime of Bashar Assad. This dabbling in coded messages might be of some value for Bush's presidential campaign, but in the Middle East it is often better to do nothing than to make empty gestures.
Bush said he ordered the sanctions because Syria has been "supporting terrorism, pursuing weapons of mass destruction and missile programs, and undermining US and international efforts with respect to the stabilization of Iraq." In reality, Assad's hosting of Palestinian leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad has been going on for a long time. And while Syria's relationship with the Lebanese militia Hezbollah involves Iranian influence in the region and security on Israel's northern border, Assad has not permitted Hezbollah to overturn the regional power balance. Syria has been slow to crack down on jihadists slipping across its border, but as Assad's officials note, coalition forces on the Iraqi side of the long, porous border have not been able to keep the foreign intruders out. If Syria's behavior were truly "an unusual and extraordinary threat," as Bush said, he should have done more than ban $200 million worth of US exports to Syria other than food and medicine. Bush's ban on Syrian flights to the United States is the epitome of an empty threat: There are no such flights currently.
Bush's posturing will hardly make Assad end his de facto annexation of Lebanon or force him to permit free speech or political pluralism. The surest way to curtail Syria's collusion with Iran, Hezbollah, and Palestinian extremists would be to forge a comprehensive peace in the Mideast. That requires not empty gestures but a US president willing to invest in the hard work of peacemaking. © Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.
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