Striking Syria

"I can't confirm what's happened, but obviously it's in all of our interests that Hezbollah doesn't get control of heavy weapons. They're an international terrorist organization who have targeted women and children in civilian populations and have threatened en masse to come and support Assad and his war against the Syrian people.
"Before there's any action taken, obviously we'll be working in close concert wit our allies. Obviously the use of chemical weapons, the use of weapons of mass destruction against civilian populations causes deep concern. ... We don't want them, obviously, to be used against the Syrian people, their neighbours or to fall into the hands of a terrorist (group).
"It's no longer just a few hundred al-Qaeda-affiliated people. It's a substantial number of radical extremists who have come from all over the world."
John Baird, Canadian Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Trade

Israel's third strike in a matter of days within Syria -- one hitting close to Damascus. One of which may have struck a Republican Guard camp and another on the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Centre, yet another targeting surface-to-air missile sites -- have had a regionally unsettling reaction. To be expected, of course, with condemnations raining in from all sides, and Syria declaring the Israeli strikes a 'declaration of war'.

Not that Syria can contemplate with any degree of sanity, let alone self-preservation, launching any retaliatory action against Israel at this time. And while the Syrian regime rages that Israel has decided to back al-Qaeda and its auxiliaries, Israel has politely reminded Syria that it will not stand idly by while the regime of Bashar al-Assad light-heartedly ships over deadly-precision rockets to Hezbollah.

That, and that alone, was the purpose of the air strikes. Syria might have taken an instructive lesson from the first such strike a month ago, but evidently did not. Making another, then another a requirement for Israel to send the message home unequivocally. Israel, like the other Western powers, finds itself in a dilemma of quite absurd but deadly proportions. Sit by and witness a surly regime blast its civilian population into eternity?

Or arm and encourage a rag-tag rebellion in its civil war with a minority religious sect dominating the majority, with the full knowledge that any weapons being supplied will inevitably find their way into the hands of Islamist extremists, battle-hardened, competent, and utterly inhumane in their techniques. A good match, in their ruthlessness, as it happens, for the regime in its desperation to endure and overturn the rebellion.

"We are abhorred (sic) by the violence that the Syrian government is inflicting against its own people. But we're more increasingly alarmed by the amount of radical jihadists who are making it into Syria and infesting part of the opposition. This causes us great concern", said Mr. Baird in an interview.

It is all to the good for all concerned, in fact, that Israeli warplanes destroyed a stockpile of Iranian-made guided missiles, keeping them out of the hands of Hezbollah. Hezbollah, in fact, is already better-trained and -armed than the conventional Lebanese military. And the United Nations observer teams on the border between Israel and Lebanon have confirmed they have been unable to halt the total re-arming of Hezbollah to a state that renders them a formidable fighting force.

Despite which Canada's Conservative-led government has had little luck in persuading its allies in the European Union that they have a moral and human-rights obligation to list Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, and act accordingly in isolating it. Irrespective of the fact that Hezbollah has succeeded very well in infiltrating the EU, and presenting themselves as a legitimate government force in Lebanon.

Irrespective of the fact, indeed, that Canada is now heavily infested with the presence of both Hezbollah members and Hezbollah supporters, largely in Montreal, but doubtless elsewhere within the country as well. Their presence has been publicly verified by statements coming out of some elements of the expatriate Lebanese population in Montreal, and by sightings of Hezbollah flags and other symbols at 'protests' taking place in Montreal.

How to ferret them out and rid the country of their malign presence is another thing altogether. One that should be rigorously pursued, in whatever manner possible, however.