Dirty job, clean hands

Remember Ari Fleischer's counselling Iraqis on the economy of assassination? To a question regarding the expected cost of a war with Iraq in his October 1, 2002 press conference, Fleischer replied "the cost of one bullet, the Iraqi people taking it on themselves, is substantially less." In other words, If only the Iraqis would whack Saddam for us - think of the savings! Naturally, the White House wasn't really interested in saving money (or even lives, particularly). That would have pinched off the public teat at which the defence contractors suckle. And where's the Bushian sense in that?

I've already expressed my suspicions concerning the Hariri assassination. Now, I've seen enough to recognize the application of Fleischer's single bullet theory.

The cost of one bomb - one massive bomb, claimed by a "previously unknown" organization - and look at the benefit to...Syria? In a word, are you kiddin' me?

I heard a pundit the other night contend that Lebanon is vindicating Bush's Mideast policy, because White House goals are being acheived without the apparent direction of the United States. And there you have it.

You'd think, after Syria did such a bang-up job torturing Mahar Arar when US authorities deported the Canadian to Damascus to do its dirty work, Washington would cut it some slack. From the start of the "War on Terror," Syria has demonstrated a readiness, verging on over-eagerness, to join it with gusto. But that's the thing about bogus wars: when the pretext is a lie, the text becomes irrelevent.

Anyhow, the bipartisan consensus is in: "I've been particularly troubled by the Syrians' aggressive posture," said Senator Hillary Clinton, as she called for tougher measures to "punish" Syria in the wake of the Harari assassination. And Moon-addled congregants are getting Rapture-ready at the prospect of their made-in-America Apocalypse Machine becoming the instrument of prophecy to fulfill Isaiah 17:1: "Behold, Damascus will cease to be a city, and will become a heap of ruins."

Not too shabby a "mission accomplished" for the black op boys: trigger the fall of Bierut's pro-Syrian government (it's all about spreading "democracy," on the anniversary of the state-sanctioned abduction of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide); get Assad to promise to pull out the troops (15,000, who will be needed soon to defend Syria anyway, while 150,000 other foreign troops occupy its neighbour); and lay the moral foundation for the inevitable attack. And all it took was one bomb. They may even tell themselves, Hariri would have wanted it this way.

Nice work, if you can get it.