America's Isolation Of Syria Is A Joke

Remember how the United States passed restrictive trade sanctions against Syria in 2003? Remember how those sanctions were renewed, with much press attention, every year since? And it's hard to forget President Bush's repeated condemnations of the Syrian government. Well, apparently it was all just hot air. Sorry about that. The United States has been providing the Syrian regime with high-tech exports, under the United Nations Development Program:

"It appears that UNDP, the U.S., and yet another partner in Syria's 'customs modernization,' the European Union, have been engaged in a game of incentive diplomacy with the Assad regime, quietly laying the building blocks for a broader trade-for-peace framework with Syria and its neighbors while talking tough and brandishing trade and financial cudgels that are less than meet the eye."

Read the whole thing. Essentially, the United States is providing the Syrian regime with "sophisticated surveillance equipment" through the UNDP. Syrian purchases of the equipment have been approved by the UNDP's executive board, on which the United States has a seat. Cisco, the US-based company that makes equipment, is subject to the export ban to Syria.

What an embarassment. If I was a Congressman who was serious about isolating Syria, I would be up in arms about Congress's laws being circumvented. If I was President Bush, who routinely blasts Syria for its human rights abuses and murderous role in Lebanon, I would be ashamed.