Already dividing up hawks and doves on a potential war with Syria

Following up on my earlier post on increasing U.S. threats against Syria, it’s interesting to see major players already lining up as hawks and doves on a possible war. Like the early stages of diplomacy regarding Iraq, people are not necessarily falling into predictable camps.

Most notably, Lawrence Eagleburger, Secretary of State for the first President Bush, told the BBC that if this President Bush were to launch an attack on Syria, “even I would feel he ought to be impeached.” (You think Karl Rove might call Eagleburger to scream about this? Yeah, so do I.)

Democratic presidential candidate Bob Graham, however, appears to support Bush’s aggressive approach towards Syria.

“Now that the war in Iraq begins to recede, we are now talking about a country that poses a greater threat, Syria,” Graham said. When asked what he thought might happen next, Graham said, “We threw a few cruise missiles into the terrorist training camps in Afghanistan…that’s what we may have to do in Syria.”

This just goes to show how unique Graham’s approach to foreign policy is among Democrats. Graham, you might recall, is the only Dem candidate running for president from Congress to have voted against the resolution to approve military action in Iraq. Graham, however, was not motivated by anti-war feelings, instead he voted against it because he wanted to see the U.S. engage other potential enemies before going after Iraq. As far as he was concerned, a genuine war against terrorism means going after countries that represent immediate terrorist threats against the U.S., including countries such as Syria. In other words, Graham was attacking Bush’s Iraq position from the right, not the left. It stands to reason, therefore, that if there’s a move to take on Syria, Graham will be a strong supporter.

Meanwhile, America’s closest foreign ally, England, is making it clear that it wants no part of another Middle East war. Over the weekend, Prime Minister Blair said there were “no plans whatsoever to invade Syria.” Blair’s foreign secretary, Jack Straw, added that Syria is not “next on the list,” which follows his remarks from two weeks ago that England would have “nothing” to do with military action against Syria.