Press Action ::: Syria and the Double Standards of John Kerry

Thursday, February 19, 2004

Syria and the Double Standards of John Kerry

It would take quite an effort to find someone willing to defend Syria’s government as a beacon of openness and freedom. Syria’s inhabitants are ruled by a dictatorship that maintains a tight grip on most aspects of public life. Aside from the viciousness of its internal police agencies, Syria’s military continues to maintain a large and suffocating presence in neighboring Lebanon.

And yet, there are many people who are willing to defend similar conduct by other nations in the region. Condemning Syria for its appalling domestic and foreign policies, while letting the governments of Israel and the United States off the hook for the atrocities they’ve committed in the region — as the Syria Accountability Act has done — is just one example of how U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East is laden with double standards.

One of the U.S Senate’s co-sponsors of the Syria Accountability Act was Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. The act, signed into law in December 2003 by President Bush, directs the president to impose sanctions against Syria and to ban U.S. sales of weaponry and dual-use items to the country.

Critics of the act complained it represented yet another example of the U.S. government helping Israel so as to diminish any potential threat to that nation’s military supremacy in the Middle East. Bush signed the act into law two months after Israel launched military air strikes against two sites in Syria. The U.S. government has yet to condemn those strikes.

Kerry was not alone in his support of the Syria act. All of Congress, except for four senators and eight members of the House, voted in favor of act. The four senators who voted against the act were Robert Byrd (D-WV), Lincoln Chafee (R-RI), Michael Enzi (R-WY) and Jim Jeffords (I-VT). The eight members of the House who voted against it were John Conyers (D-MI), John Dingell (D-MI), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), Jim McDermott (D-WA), Ron Paul (R-TXCritics of the act complained it represented yet another example of the U.S. government helping Israel so as to diminish any potential threat to that nation’s military supremacy in the Middle East. Bush signed the act into law two months after Israel launched military air strikes against two sites in Syria. The U.S. government has yet to condemn those strikes.

Kerry was not alone in his support of the Syria act. All of Congress, except for four senators and eight members of the House, voted in favor of act. The four senators who voted against the act were Robert Byrd (D-WV), Lincoln Chafee (R-RI), Michael Enzi (R-WY) and Jim Jeffords (I-VT). The eight members of the House who voted against it were John Conyers (D-MI), John Dingell (D-MI), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), Jim McDermott (D-WA), Ron Paul (R-TX), Nick Rahall (D-WV), and Pete Stark (D-CA). For those keeping score, that’s seven Democrats, four Republicans and one independent who saw through the double standards and propaganda.

In their embrace of the Syria act, the U.S. Congress and the Bush administration are conveniently overlooking how the U.S. government is perpetrating the first major war crime of the 21st century in Iraq — next door to Syria — and how the Israeli government continues its appalling policies against Palestinians and continues to occupy and invade foreign lands in the region. If members of Congress were also to sanction the Bush administration for its illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq and if they were to sponsor an Israel Accountability Act, then the Syria act would appear less of a farce.

Until the U.S. government puts an end to its own acts of terrorism abroad, it should stop telling other countries how to act. When U.S.-sponsored terrorism is halted, then the U.S. government would have some traction on which to make accusations against foreign dictatorships. The U.S. government would need to be careful, however, not to fall down the slippery slope whereby its pronouncements evolve into mandates for the use of military force against the targeted nation or into restrictions on U.S. citizens from conducting business or other affairs in the targeted nation.

Kerry, who voted to back the Bush administration’s invasion of Iraq, said he supported the Syria Accountability Act because he wanted to force the Syrian government into a position to meet the demands of the U.S. government.

Below is a letter that Sen. Kerry has distributed in which he explains his reasons for co-sponsoring the Syria Accountability Act.

Dear Citizen,

Thank you for your letter regarding the Syria Accountability Act. I appreciate knowing your views on this important issue.

As you may know, Syria has an extensive history of human rights violations, connections with terrorism, arms proliferation, previous involvement in narcotics trafficking, and illegal occupation of Lebanon. The Syrian government has historically ruled by methods such as torture, arbitrary arrest and detention, prolonged detention without trial, and limits on freedom of speech and the press. Since 1979, the State Department has regularly placed Syria on the list of countries that support international terrorism, and has also accused Syria of pursuing a nuclear weapons program.

I supported talks between Secretary of State Colin Powell and Syrian President Bashar al-Asad, which took place on May 3, 2003. At this time, Secretary Powell iterated that Syria must stop supporting terrorist organizations and harboring escapees from Iraq. Since the meeting, Secretary Powell has said that Syria has taken some limited steps towards reform, but that these limited steps are not enough. Like Secretary Powell, I am concerned that Syria is not whole-heartedly working towards meeting U.S. demands. We must ensure that Syria does not acquire and distribute additional weapons thereby exasperating tensions in the Middle East, raising potential threats to Israel, and undermining arms control.

I cosponsored the Syria Accountability Act to hold Syria responsible for its support for terrorism, occupation of Lebanon, and possible pursuit of weapons of mass destruction. I am hopeful that substantial Congressional support for the Accountability Act will influence Syria to meet the demands raised by Colin Powell in May in a more timely and transparent manner. The Accountability Act includes bans on the export of military items and of dual use items to Syria, and requires the president to impose at least two additional bans, chosen from the six included in the Accountability Act. The Accountability Act does not give the president the option of prohibiting the U.S. from exporting food and medicine to Syria.

Thank you again for taking the time to share your views with me on this important matter.

Sincerely,

John F. Kerry
United States Senator

In his letter, Kerry refers to Syria’s use of such methods as “torture, arbitrary arrest and detention, and prolonged detention without trial.” The Democratic frontrunner fails to note that these are the same methods used by the Israeli government in its war on the Palestinians since 1948 and by the U.S. government in its war on terrorism since 2001.

Kerry also mentions that the State Department has accused Syria of pursuing a nuclear weapons program. Unmentioned in the letter — nor in any law passed by the U.S. Congress — is the fact that Israel is the only nation in the region with a nuclear weapons capability.

In the next paragraph, Kerry notes that Secretary of State Colin Powell has said “Syria must stop supporting terrorist organizations and harboring escapees from Iraq.” Given his support for the U.S. invasion of Iraq, it is not surprising Kerry would reprimand Syria for harboring “escapees” of Iraq. Still, it is extremely unsettling to read Kerry’s challenge to Syria for allegedly allowing Iraqis to enter its country when the U.S. government is perpetrating the crime of the century next door in Iraq.

In the same paragraph, Kerry says the United States must ensure that Syria does not take action that would raise “potential threats to Israel.” It would seem the Israeli government, with its large arsenal of nuclear weapons, can look out for itself without a U.S. senator having to worry about it. But for some reason, virtually the entire U.S. Congress is committed to maintaining the sanctity of the Israeli government while seeking the the destabilization of other nations in the region.

As I was reading Kerry’s condemnation of Syria’s occupation of Lebanon, I failed to remember the senator making similar pronouncements against the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Nor did I remember any statement by Kerry attacking the Bush administration for opening the door to terrible acts of terrorism in Iraq through its invasion and occupation of the country.

If Kerry is elected president in November, don’t expect any dramatic change in U.S. Middle East policy. As indicated in his letter about Syria, Kerry is as blind to the crimes of Israel and the U.S. government in the region as the radicals currently making policy in Bush’s State Department and Pentagon.

-- Mark Hand

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