Reason Writers Around Town

At Slate, Michael Young assesses the aftermath of Rafiq Hariri's assassination.

Comments

[Ken Shultz]

"Tuesday, the Bush administration recalled its ambassador to Syria for consultations, without specifying for how long. Washington and Paris have several options before them, including going to the U.N. Security Council and perhaps imposing new sanctions on Syria. Or the United States might unilaterally do so under a piece of domestic legislation known as the Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act. But the tug of war has just started. There may be more bombs in Beirut before Syria concedes--or the Americans and French do so first."

I understand that the Americans and French might concede first; has anyone seriously proposed that the Americans and French drop bombs in Beirut?

[Ruthless]

I try to avoid complex conspiracy theories, but this assassination makes it so convenient for Dubya to step up the pressure on Syria... something he was pretty evidently itchin' to do.
Does anyone know what the CIA is doing with our tax dollars?

[Ken Layne]

Bah, who cares about the CIA these days. The White House doesn't need 'em. How hard is it to blow up a political figure and make it look like Big Bad Already There Syria did the dirty deed? Unless Syria's young prez is asking for an invasion -- and asking for the fate of Old Saddam -- is there any other reasonable explanation?

[joe]

Ken,

They blew a man to pieces in his car, and the explanation has to be rational?

My guess is some Syrian "friends" who thought they'd be doing their side a favor. Perhaps Assad had a Thomas More moment.

[SR]

I posted this late to one of the other Hariri threads and I'll just repeat it here.

*****************************

The argument that the Syrian government was behind the attack ignores the obvious question: Why would the Syrians want to carry out the attack so spectacularly? The Syrians may have wanted him to shut up, but destabilizing Lebanon is not in their interests. It is, however, a major interest of parties who would like to see a US attack on Lebanon/Syria. I would reorder Matthew Hogan's ranking as follows:

Anti-Syrians (Israelis/Phalagists etc.) setting them up for the fallout -- 45%
Salafis (bin-Ladenites/fellow travelers) -- 30%
Syrian officialdom -- 20%
Syrian rogue intelligence -- 5%

[Isaac Bartram]

Perhaps Assad had a Thomas More moment.

Do you mean Thomas a Becket.

[joe]

d'oh!

[Isaac Bartram]

I thought I had it right from the context.

Same christian names, both saints martyred by heretic English kings trying to usurp the rightful authority of the Holy Catholic Church.

I can see why you might get them confused. 🙂