(Newsweek) Fareed Zakaria - Both the administration and Congress seem to have decided to pressure Syria by ratcheting up the economic sanctions already in place against it. This is pointless, because economic sanctions, particularly unilateral American ones, have an unblemished record of failure. When sanctions have worked, it is because they have been multilateral sanctions, usually authorized through the UN. The U.S. has begun to try to gather an international coalition against Syria. It is unlikely to produce UN sanctions, but it might put real pressure on the Syrian regime politically. Syria does not think of itself as a pariah state like North Korea - and if it does not stop funding terrorists, occupying Lebanon and crushing all dissent, it should be treated as such. Washington has many gripes with Syria - its support for the insurgency in Iraq being the biggest - but it should focus single-mindedly on one issue that can gain international support: getting Syria out of Lebanon.
2005-02-21 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive