Syria: Not What Bush-war Says

The U.S. government has recently been dissing Syria. So how much of it is true? Harry Browne has some answers (exerpt):

...What, then, do we really know about the march to freedom and the Syrian threat? 1. There are 13,000 Syrian troops in Lebanon. There are 150,000 American troops in Iraq. Which is more of an invading, occupying army? 2. The Syrian troops in Lebanon are all in the countryside — ready to help restore order if needed, but generally out of sight of the Lebanese people. The American troops in Iraq are all over the place — killing insurgents and civilians alike while devastating cities like Fallujah. 3. There are no reports of Lebanese insurgents fighting the Syrian troops, while there are daily clashes between Iraqi insurgents and American troops. 4. As Pat Buchanan has pointed out, it would make no sense for the Syrians to have assassinated the Lebanese ex-Prime Minister — since they had to know that they would automatically become the #1 suspect and bring the wrath of Bush down upon their heads. 5. Syrian troops first invaded Lebanon at the time of the Gulf War. And while Syria was overrunning Lebanon, President George H.W. Bush was proudly listing Syria as a member of the coalition of nations fighting Saddam Hussein. 6. The Bush administration, as usual, won’t negotiate anything with anyone. The Bushies prefer to make accusations in the media, assert that they have evidence that no one ever gets to see, and incite Americans to hate another nation of human beings. 7. The claims that recent democratic developments in Arab countries prove that the Bush doctrine has succeeded are as premature as the "Mission Accomplished" banner on the USS Lincoln. I’m not aware of a single country in the Middle East in which the citizens have one iota more liberty than they did three years ago. All we’ve seen are tiny baby steps toward democracy — meaning that some people might get the opportunity to vote on who will officiate in their police states, just as the citizens of Iraq got to vote under the Hussein regime. 8. The TV pictures of a Lebanese crowd celebrating the fall of the pro-Syrian Lebanese government no more demonstrate the attitudes of all Lebanese than do the TV pictures of U.S. pro-abortion rallies demonstrate that all Americans (or even a majority) are in favor of abortions. 9. Despite the State Department’s human rights report of torture and other ghastly conditions inside Syria, the U.S. government has sent some of its "War on Terror" prisoners to Syria for interrogation — and, presumably, torture. And not one American politician is embarrassed by the contradiction. Once again, the Bush administration has cried "Havoc!" and is gearing up to unleash the Dogs of War. And if we’re smart, we won’t believe a word of it.

Around 3 years ago I stopped believing everything that our Bush-war government says. When will that become the rule rather than the exception with the American public?

I know Harry Browne is a Libertarian (in fact was the Presidential candidate for his party in 1996 and 2000). But I'll be damned... even Libertarians are sounding much more sane than the slime-filled, sewer-infested neocon wing of the Republican Party.