Pressuring Syria

Syria has a great deal to fear from the power of freedom. That state’s recent actions demonstrate how critical it is for coalition forces to continue their work of liberation.

Rowan Scarborough reported in yesterday’s editions of the Washington Times that Syria is facilitating the movement of foreign fighters against coalition forces — aiding their border crossings, arming them and allowing them to return and resupply. It is not clear how culpable Syrian President Bashar Assad is in this matter. He might be turning a blind eye; he might be orchestrating the action.

There is little doubt that Syria is allowing armed men through its borders to attack coalition forces. On CNN Sunday with Wolf Blitzer, Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said, “The pathway into Iraq for many foreign fighters is thorough Syria. It’s a fact … The Syrians could do more to stop it.” In an interview on Monday, Secretary of State Colin Powell said, “It is not in Syria’s interest to be seen as a base from which infiltrators can come across … to kill innocent Iraqis or to kill coalition troops.”

While Syria has been abetting the movement of forces against the coalition, it has been clamping down on Kurdish dissenters inside its borders. Last week, the regime arrested prominent human rights activist Aktham Naise and charged him with distorting the image of the state. One of Mr. Naise’s “crimes” was proclaiming that Syria arrested about 1,000 Kurds during last month’s unrest in the area. Since the coalition’s liberation of Iraq, the minority Kurds have grown more restive — and as a consequence, their repression has become even worse.

Syria’s oppressive regime has been condemned by human-rights groups with grim regularity. For the last quarter century, the United States has censured it as a state sponsor of terrorism. The United States may finally be ready to put teeth into its approbation. Mr. Powell said on Monday that sanctions permitted by the Syrian Accountability Act would be imposed “in the very near future,” although he did not describe the exact form that they would take.

On the Syrian-Iraqi border, Marines have attempted to cut down infiltrators with patrols and firepower. The clashes over the weekend near the city of Husaybah — which sits just 300 yards from the Syrian border — were a case in point.

Mr. Assad is right to fear that the wave of liberation that has swept through Afghanistan and is sweeping through Iraq may eventually sweep him away as well. In his press conference earlier this month, President Bush proclaimed, “So long as I’m the president, I will press for freedom. I believe so strongly in the power of freedom.” Syria’s actions prove that such power, backed by U.S. armed might, is having a pronounced effect on the region. It proves that free people must continue to press Syria.