I noticed this morning that the White House finally caved to Congress’ demands and imposed a series of new sanctions against Syria.
Under pressure from Congress, President Bush slapped sanctions on Syria yesterday for supporting terrorism and interfering with U.S. efforts to stabilize Iraq.
The White House said the sanctions include banning U.S. exports to Syria except for food and medicine, prohibiting Syrian aircraft from flying to and from the United States, freezing certain Syrian assets and cutting off relations with a Syrian bank because of money laundering concerns.
I’m no expert on the Syrian government or its alleged terrorist ties, but in reading over the White House’s announcement about this, I noticed a serious problem.
The president’s statement, for example, characterized Syria as posing an “unusual and extraordinary threat,” while a White House fact sheet argued that Syria may have weapons of mass destruction.
In case we needed another reminder of why Bush deserves to lose his job, here it is. The problem isn’t that we’re imposing new sanctions on a potential adversary; it’s that no one can reasonably trust Bush’s word anymore about who our adversaries are.
The White House, in announcing the sanctions against Syria, accused the country of “support for terrorist groups” and having “advanced…chemical weapons capabilities.” The administration also pointed to intelligence indicating that Syria “continues to develop an offensive biological weapons capability.”
It has a stockpile of the nerve agent sarin and has engaged in the research and development of more toxic and persistent nerve agents such as VX. In addition, Syria maintains an inventory of Scud and SS-21 short-range ballistic missiles, and is believed to have chemical warheads available for a portion of its Scud missile force.
Is any of this true? I haven’t the foggiest idea, but I’m certainly not willing to take Bush’s word for it. Frankly, I really can’t imagine why anyone else would either. And that’s the problem.
Bush’s credibility on potential U.S. threats is irretrievably broken. Some of the same charges he levied against Syria yesterday were made against Iraq over a year ago. He was terribly wrong about the Iraqi threat, so there’s every reason to be skeptical about his concerns over a potential Syrian threat.
This represents an incredible problem for which the only solution is a change in U.S. leadership. Syria may, in fact, be the threat that the White House insists it is. But the fact that Americans and people around the world can no longer rely on Bush’s assessment of potential threats creates a crisis in leadership for our country.
The last time Bush cried wolf, most of the world was skeptical. Ultimately, they were proven right. Now Bush is talking about another country that poses an “unusual and extraordinary threat.” Why would anyone believe him?
Our government must have integrity to succeed in international affairs and diplomacy. If our leader is seen as untrustworthy, as is clearly the case, our efforts will have no standing on the world stage and our word will have no authority.
Just imagine the scenario of Bush going to the United Nations again to ask support for a military campaign against an alleged enemy, whether it be North Korea, Iran, or Syria. Then imagine the international reaction.
As Bush himself once said, “Fool me once, shame on, shame on…you…We won’t get fooled again.”