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The Good Intifada: How to Pressure Syria to Get Out of Lebanon

(Wall Street Journal) Editorial - Some Lebanese are calling for their own peaceful intifada - the "shaking off" of foreign rule. The task for the Bush administration is to support this exercise in people power by raising the political, economic, and diplomatic price Syria must pay for the occupation. President Bush could do much merely by championing Lebanese freedom in every speech he delivers on the Middle East. Other effective and low-cost measures include freezing all diplomatic contacts with Syria until it complies with UN Resolution 1559, which calls for full Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon, and calling attention to the plight of Syrian dissidents. Also, would it be asking too much of all our European partners - now that we're friends again - to designate the Syrian-sponsored Hizballah as a terrorist organization (France still refuses to do so) and treat prominent members of the Syrian regime as personae non gratae by denying them entry visas and investigating their ties to money laundering and drug trafficking? If there was ever a moment to make an ally of the Lebanese people in their quest for freedom, this is it.
2005-02-24 00:00:00
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