…And Full Industrialization In 3 Years, Not 5

My favorite Recommendation so far from the absolute snoozer that is the Iraq Study Group Report:

RECOMMENDATION 15: Concerning Syria, some elements of that negotiated peace should be: • Syria’s full adherence to UN Security Council Resolution 1701 of August 2006, which provides the framework for Lebanon to regain sovereign control over its territory. • Syria’s full cooperation with all investigations into politi- cal assassinations in Lebanon, especially those of Rafik Hariri and Pierre Gemayel. • A verifiable cessation of Syrian aid to Hezbollah and the use of Syrian territory for transshipment of Iranian weapons and aid to Hezbollah. (This step would do much to solve Is- rael’s problem with Hezbollah.) • Syria’s use of its influence with Hamas and Hezbollah for the release of the captured Israeli Defense Force soldiers. • A verifiable cessation of Syrian efforts to undermine the democratically elected government of Lebanon. 

• A verifiable cessation of arms shipments from or transiting through Syria for Hamas and other radical Palestinian groups. • A Syrian commitment to help obtain from Hamas an ac- knowledgment of Israel’s right to exist. • Greater Syrian efforts to seal its border with Iraq. 

I doubt if Saddam Hussein himself came riding back to Baghdad on a shimmering white steed with the sword of Saladin in one hand and the head of the Giaour in the other, Syria would comply with any of the above. Even if the moon were full, too.

One really must admire the "realism" on display here:  We're told to cozy up to one of the worst regimes in the region — where roving death squads are still out on nightly patrol and where only George Galloway feels safe to hang his hat on vacation — and we expect it to toe the line on international law when it has signaled not the least desire to do so.  Bashar al-Assad's assassination of prominent Lebanese figures has happened at a time where, if the ISG were to be believed, no neighboring country can brook a "destabilized" or chaotic Iraq and yet destabilized and chaotic Iraq has been all the while.  Why should we expect Damascus to change its game if we approach as supplicants, not zero-tolerance policemen?

(Also, whoever copyedited this mess should have been fired: The construction "Greater Syria" has different connotation east of Suez than it does in Washington.)