The White House Decides Bashar’s Time is Up

The White House has decided that Bashar al-Assad’s time is up, even though he still has some friends in the State Department. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s failure to get Bashar to stop funding terrorism and promoting insurgent warfare against the Coalition forces in Iraq has finally boiled over, embarrassing both her and angering US Pres. George W. Bush and his key advisors.

Now, both the Bush White House and the Saudi leadership have had enough; and the Bush-Sa’ud alliance on this matter is lethal for Bashar. They want Bashar out, and his uncle, Dr. Rifa’at al-Assad, in. For good reason: Rifa’at — a seasoned, reasonable, and highly-intelligent leader and statesman — has always opposed the kind of strategically suicidal policies of Bashar and his Iranian masters, and wants a stable Levant and a prosperous, market-oriented, secure Syria, living in peace with its neighbors as part of the Mediterranean trading community.

Bashar thought he could go on insulting and injuring the US with impunity. Did he think that he could become continually more brazen in his support for insurgency in Iraq and murder in Lebanon, not to mention the once-again open logistical support for HizbAllah in Lebanon? Is he trying to see how much insult Washington would take, by supporting — as he did in mid-Ocxtober 2007 — Turkey’s plans to invade northern Iraq? Did he not think that even Washington, preoccupied with other matters, would not eventually notice the dramatic disconnect between his lies and his actions?

Well, maybe the State Department would take it. Foggy Bottom, the State Department’s area of Washington, DC, has always had a love affair with people who insult the US. But the White House is another matter, and so is the US Congress and the US Defense Department. And so, too, is Saudi Arabia, which has a deep strategic relationship with Washington. And Bashar has finally exhausted the patience of Saudi King ‘Abdallah, who had worked hard — along with strategic advisor Prince Bandar — to find a solution which included Bashar. That’s all ended.

Dr. Rifa’at al-Assad was recently invited to Mecca to meet with King ‘Abdallah and key Saudi leaders, and, by mid-October 2007, the Saudis had made it clear that they wanted Bashar out of power and Rifa’at — who knows all the corridors of power in Damascus — in charge. Gone are Saudi thoughts of trying to force a Sunni leader to the top in Damascus. And now Saudi Arabia has convinced the US White House and Pentagon that Bashar’s removal is the only thing which could stop the Syrian-supported carnage in Iraq and Damascus’ and Tehran’s planned destabilization of the Levant. Moreover, removing the Syrian leg from Iran’s three-legged stool (Iran, Syria, and North Korea) would do more than any other single thing to stop the Iranian strategic juggernaut.

Sure, the Saudis have been angry with Bashar for the Syrian-sponsored smear campaign against the Royal Family, but that, like Bashar’s gratuitous insults of the US, has now gone too far. Bashar promises to help Iran carve up Iraq, and that would seriously threaten stability in the Gulf, and Saudi Arabia’s strategic position.

Bashar is like a man jumping from an aircraft without a parachute. It all seems to be going very well indeed, until that last little dose of reality: hitting the ground.