Now that Iraq has safely been turned over from Saddam Hussein's regime to liberated looters, it seems the United States is setting its cross-hairs on Syria.
In virtually the same breath the White House declared the fall of Iraq, Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer labeled Syria "a terrorist state."
And The Associated Press reported that President Bush laughed when he was asked whether Syria was a good candidate for his "axis of evil," saying, "We will deal with each situation as it comes."
It's troubling that Bush feels such delicate foreign affairs are a laughing matter. Certainly, as the images from Iraq have shown us during the past few weeks, there is nothing comical about war.
Our nation's leaders should tread a little more lightly before launching into another diatribe of full-scale war rhetoric before its last effort is even cleaned up.
Still, on Monday, U.S. leaders turned up their criticism of Iraq's eastern neighbor, saying Syria has a stockpile of chemical weapons, is harboring militant Iraqi leaders and aided Iraq in its fight against the U.S. invasion.
Syria's deputy ambassador to the United States, Imad Moustapha, told The Associated Press the Bush administration's flurry of charges was a "campaign of misinformation and disinformation" meant to divert attention from the "human catastrophes" taking place in wartime Iraq.
Bush said Syria "needs to cooperate" with the United States and its coalition partners.
Syria was an outspoken opponent of the U.S. effort to sell its pre-emptive war sentiments to the United Nations, saying it feared attack from Israel more than it did Iraq. Syria did support U.N. Resolution 1441, which called for Iraq's disarmament.
In addition, Syria does have U.N. permission to keep and manufacture approved chemical weapons for self defense.
If allegations to Syria's helping or harboring of terrorist groups are true, the country should alter its policies to rid the world of such criminals. But the United States also cannot continue to war against every government that isn't "cooperating" with its demands.
Of course, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told The Associated Press that, "I didn't say anything like that," when asked about possible military action against Syria.
But it's not hard to read between the lines, especially if the United States exercises the same patience with diplomacy that it did in pursuing its war with Iraq.
We heard the Bush administration's prelude to war rhetoric before. And we know it stands behind its "you-are-either-for-us-or-against-us" foreign policy.
The smell of war against Syria is indeed in the air. We just hope it's put out before the United States pre-emptive war on terrorism tours the full Middle East circuit.
Such an extreme foreign policy would indeed be unjustified and the backlash could be detrimental.
We should not be saying, "Who's next?" but "What's next?" after the liberation of Iraq. Diplomacy ought to always be held above war.
