The State Department has begun coordinating with Syria's neighbors to prepare for the handling of President Bashar al-Assad's extensive weapons of mass destruction if and when his regime collapses, The Cable has learned.
This week, the State Department sent a diplomatic demarche to Syria's neighbors Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia, warning them about the possibility of Syria's WMDs crossing their borders and offering U.S. government help in dealing with the problem, three Obama administration officials confirmed to The Cable.
There is some amusement in this deadly serious problem. I recall before the Iraq War that opponents of the invasion who now say it was a war based on "lies," then warned that defeating Saddam could lead to chaos and the dispersal of the WMD that were firmly under Saddam's control while he remained in power. So it makes sense that there is some continuity in that worry. Now, of course, "lies" aren't involved--just the guidance of our intelligence which tells us that Assad has chemical weapons. That's way different than Iraq in 2002 and 2003, eh?
Anyway. It is good to be concerned about Syria's chemical weapons arsenal. It is a real threat we need to be prepared for. Kudos to the Obama administration for addressing it. Who knows? Maybe our caution over Syria is based on trying to get the pieces in place to cope with the potential chaos of a fallen Assad regime rather than mere passivity.
I still hold hope that version 5.0 of the conventional wisdom of Saddam's chemical weapons status might be unveiled. After all, dispersal by the Assad regime before collapse is unlikely given the greater scale of what Assad has and the lack of a safe destination.
