Karl Rove and Condi Rice think Rumsfeld was extreme? No more war until 2004?
Rice blocked plan for raids on Syria](Rice actions on Syria disputed - UPI.com)
Key White House advisers, ignoring pressure from Pentagon hawks and senior Israeli officials, abruptly shut down proposed U.S. plans to expand the Iraqi ground war to Syria in the closing days of combat, administration officials have told United Press International. …
Contingency plans for such raids were being drawn up by Doug Feith, undersecretary of defense for policy, after the approval of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, these sources said on condition of anonymity.
But the stern refusal to expand U.S. military actions in Iraq to another country came from national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, backed by the president’s chief domestic adviser, Karl Rove, and Secretary of State Colin Powell, according to the sources.
One proponent of the plans disagreed: "I saw no reason why we shouldn’t have gone in. Powell wanted to return to regular bilateral relations with states in the area, but the balance of power (in the region) had changed, and we had the troops and we had the momentum.
“Rice’s message was quite succinct: There will be no further military adventures during the remainder of the president’s first term,” one senior administration official said.
Another source with close knowledge of the White House meetings said: “The hawks didn’t understand the emphasis had all changed: Everything was focused, not on the war any more, but on the president’s re-election.”
This official added that Rove had handled the elections of 2002 on the basis that “the American public knew the economy was a disaster, but the president asked them to put the war on terror first, and to vote Republican. And the public voted Republican. We think he felt any movement into Syria was pushing his luck.” …
In spite of Syria’s heightened cooperation in the war on terror, with Syria giving the United States much useful information about al-Qaida, it was still supporting Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in the war. …
[Rumsfeld] warned that arms and supplies were moving into Iraq from Syria as well. Syria replied strongly that such charges were “baseless.”
In an interview with The Washington Times, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz was quoted as saying: “Syria is shipping killers into Iraq to kill Americans.”
There was some truth to this, say serving and former U.S. intelligence officials.
Former senior CIA officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told UPI that U.S. combat forces in Iraq detained at least 700 Lebanon-based Hezbollah fighters who came in buses over the Syrian border to fight against the U.S. coalition.
In one incident, a bus filled with Lebanese Hezbollah militants stopped in Iraq included two dozen Chechen terrorists, a very former senior agency official said. …
The hawks also saw Syria as the only remaining military threat to Israel.
Former CIA Middle East expert Bob Baer told UPI that Syria possesses “a chemical arsenal that is much more lethal than anything Saddam has,” and explained that “in Israeli strategic thought, the most dangerous threat is the geographically closest” – which would mean Syria.
According to an April 18 report in Middle East International, Israeli intelligence chief Gen. Rossi Kupperwasser told a Knesset committee, “It is possible that Iraq has transferred missiles and weapons of mass destruction into Syria.” …
The latest Pentagon press for action against Damascus was bolstered by the visit of Israeli National Security Adviser Efrian Halevy, who visited Washington on April 12-14, invited by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, according to Israeli Embassy officials.
According to a Haaretz report of April 13, Halevy and another senior aide to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Dov Weisglass, were visiting Washington to "suggest that the United States take care of Iran and Syria because of their support for terror and pursuit of weapons of mass destruction." …
The meeting with Halevy took place in the president’s conference room with only top NSC officials and White House advisers in attendance, administration sources said.
In response to Halevy’s entreaties for action, Rice repeated her assertion of no more military adventures for the rest of Bush’s first term, according to sources with knowledge of the meeting. They said Rumsfeld objected, and, at one point, turned to Rove and asked his opinion. Rove said the president agreed with Rice, and the meeting came to an end.
On April 15, the Washington Post quoted Rice as saying of Syria, “The president has made clear that every problem in the Middle East cannot be dealt with in the same way.”
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But, of course, after the election, “at a time of our choosing” one of those on the list will become such an “imminent threat” that if we don’t storm the country now we will all die gruesome deaths at their hands…
