This article is part of the series: Is Syria on the same list as Iraq?
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Staat Syrië op dezelfde lijst als Irak? - 2

'Powell waarschuwt Syrië voor 'consequenties'', kopt Nu.nl. 'Powell said future relations hingeon whether Assad’s government takes sincere action in coming weeks and months toward becoming a partner in Middle East peace efforts', schrijft MSNBC vandaag. Syrië maakt zich zorgen. En terecht, want zoals de aanval op Irak al jarenlang was voorbereid (zie deel 1 van dit artikel), zo lijkt Syrië ook al een favoriet doel van de neocons. Zoals de aanval op Irak werd voorspeld door rapporten van hen die nu in de Amerikaanse regering de dienst uitmaken, zo wordt in andere rapporten Syrië genoemd. "There's got to be a change in Syria", zegt onderminister van Defensie Paul Wolfowitz.

Door Daan de Wit

'Als we nog tien of vijftien landen binnen moeten trekken om een eind te maken aan het terrorisme, moeten we dat doen', aldus Donald Rumsfeld in een artikel in HUMO [17/3267] over de 'neocons' getiteld De haviken-toptien. Naast die opmerking hadden we ook de woorden van Dick Cheney goed in onze oren geknoopt: 'the country’s war on terrorism might not be over ‘‘in our lifetime’’.' Ook de woorden van voormalig CIA-directeur James Woolsey galmden nog na: 'This Fourth World War I think will last considerably longer than either World Wars I or II did for us, hopefully not the full four-plus decades of the Cold War....'. Dus na het veroveren van de op-een-na-rijkste olievelden ter wereld, die van Irak, zetten wij onze kaarten op de rijkste olievelden, die van Saudie-Arabië. We hadden dus niet raar opgekeken als het topzware regime een zetje kreeg via een Amerikaanse destabilisatiepoging. Of Iran, ook een olierijke en dus goede kandidaat. Maar nog voor de oorlog met Irak over was, kreeg Syrië een rode kaart.

Naast Irak ook Syrië doel van neocons
Jim Lobe schrijft: 'As speculation about a U.S. invasion of Syria reaches a boil, it is helpful to look for hard clues. Many of the same neo-conservative hawks who campaigned for war against Iraq have signed reports in recent years that call for confrontation -- not mere engagement -- with Syria. In words that echo the same logic for striking Baghdad, the most prominent report, called "Ending Syria's Occupation of Lebanon: The U.S. Role," warned that Damascus is developing weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and encouraged swift preemption. Published in May 2000, the study was released by the Middle East Forum (MEF). The MEF is headed by the well-known Islamaphobe, Daniel Pipes.' Over Pipes schreef de NRC op 29 april: 'President Bush sprak gisteren warme woorden tegen de verschillende geloofsgroepen in het Midden-Oosten. Maar een recente benoeming spreekt volgens critici andere taal. [...] The Washington Post noemde het 'een wrede grap' dat president Bush Daniel Pipes voordroeg als bestuurslid van het US Institute for Peace [...].' Lobe vervolgt: 'Pipes co-chaired the [MEF] with Ziad Abdelnour, an investment banker who since 1997 has quarterbacked an organization called the United States Committee for a Free Lebanon (USCFL).'

De bekende gezichten willen Syrië zien hangen
De kop 'Syria should be Next' boven een artikel op de USCLF-website laat weinig duidelijkheid te wensen over. Lobe: '"If there is to be decisive action, it will have to be sooner rather than later," warns the [MEF/USCLF] document, which was signed by a task force of 31 members, including several people who now hold senior foreign policy positions in the Bush administration.' 'Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has accused Syria of harboring members of Saddam's regime, and asked, whether Damascus was "next" after Iraq, replied that "it depends on people's behavior". Intelligence officials told reporters that Rumsfeld had ordered the drawing up of contingency plans for a possible invasion of Syria and that Feith, the Pentagon's number three official, had begun work on a policy paper about Syria's support of terrorist groups. "There's got to be a change in Syria," said Deputy Secretary of State Paul Wolfowitz on a TV network news program. "It is a strange regime, one of extreme ruthlessness." At the same time, former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director James Woolsey, a favorite of Wolfowitz and Perle, who may be tapped to play a top political role in post-war Iraq, declared that Washington was fighting enemies in a "World War IV" that includes "fascists of Iraq and Syria", a reference to Syria's ruling Ba'ath Party', aldus Lobe in een ander artikel van zijn hand.

Richard Perle kijkt verder dan individuele landen: 'A total war'
American Free Press: 'Veteran journalist John Pilger recently wrote [in een prima artikel] about one of PNAC’s [Project for a New American Century] founding members, Richard Perle: “I interviewed Perle when he was advising Reagan, and when he spoke about ‘total war,’ I mistakenly dismissed him as mad,” Pilger wrote. “He recently used the term again in describing America’s ‘war on terror.’ ‘No stages,’ he said. ‘This is total war. We are fighting a variety of enemies. There are lots of them out there. All this talk about first we are going to do Afghanistan, then we will do Iraq . . . this is entirely the wrong way to go about it. If we just let our vision of the world go forth, and we embrace it entirely and we don’t try to piece together clever diplomacy, but just wage a total war . . .'. Hij kan hierbij wellicht handig gebruik maken van zijn eigen/PNAC ontwikkelde visie: 'And advanced forms of biological warfare that can “target” specific genotypes may transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool." Perle tegen Pilger: '[...] our children will sing great songs about us years from now.’ ”' Misschien klinkt het wel net zo mooi als de dagelijks op de Iraakse televisie uitgezonden liederen ter ere van Saddam Hoessein. Ik kan bijna niet wachten om te mogen leven in een Brave New American Century.

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