Akram Hamid scrubs the grease off his hands after a day of labor in Abu Kamal, a small Syrian town not far from the Iraqi border. Twenty minutes later, the mechanic rides his motorcycle past the autumn-dry rushes along the west bank of the placid Euphrates River, to al-Sukariya, happy to start fishing. It is dusk on a Sunday in October and the turned earth of the fields is pungent. Scattered farmers amble slowly home. A few late-season frogs pulse beneath the birds, chattering and thrashing in the rushes, as Hamid gets off his bike and scoots down the bank to drop his line.
When the Israelis' controversial twenty-two-day
military campaign in Gaza ended, on January 18th, it also seemed to end
the promising peace talks between Israel and Syria. The two countries
had been engaged for almost a year in negotiations through
intermediaries in Istanbul. Many complicated technical matters had been
resolved, and there were agreements in principle on the normalization
of diplomatic relations. The consensus, as an ambassador now serving in
Tel Aviv put it, was that the two sides had been "a lot closer than you
might think."
ABU KAMAL, Syria -
The U.S. incursion into Syria late last month put this eastern border
town near Iraq on the world stage and many of its residents on edge.
"At the beginning of the war, we were scared. Then we got used to
it. Now we're scared again - and angry," said Yusef Tara, who spoke to
a reporter near the site of the Oct. 26 U.S. commando raid against an
alleged al Qaeda in Iraq hideout that Damascus says killed eight
civilians.
With one deadly strike, the Bush administration has offered a fitting epitaph to its "might makes right" policy towards Syria — and the rest of the Middle East.
On October 26, nine days before the election, American Special Operations forces, allegedly pursuing a "top operative" of Al Qaeda in Iraq, carried out a helicopter attack on Sukkariyah, a small Syrian village six miles from the Iraqi border. U.S. officials claim the "successful operation" raid killed Abu Ghadiya, an Iraqi suspected of heading an insurgent cell.
Hundreds of Syrian riot police
surrounded the US embassy in Damascus today as tens of thousands of
protesters gathered nearby to denounce a US raid that killed eight
people near the Iraqi border.
The crowds converged on Youssef
al-Azmi square, about a mile from the embassy - which was closed for
the day because of security concerns.
Troops wearing helmets
and carrying batons and shields took up positions around the embassy
and the adjacent US residence building. Two fire engines were parked
nearby.
Bush just attacked another country over the weekend, this time Syria.
Not enough that he's got our troops bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Not enough that he's attacking sites in Pakistan.
No, this self-described war president can't seem to get enough of war.
Using Iraq as a launching pad, U.S. forces attacked a village inside Syria on Sunday, killing eight people.
According to Agence France-Presse, Syrian state television showed a woman lying in a hospital bed saying, "I heard shooting, I ran to get my son and they shot me."
