Word: syria
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...head of state of a former French colony, an official visit to Paris is always a good chance do a little shopping, take in some culture, and impress the folks back home. So it was for Bashar al-Assad, the President of Syria (which was once ruled by France under a League of Nations Mandate). Over the past weekend, Syrian state television has been beaming round-the-clock images of the Syrian President and his tres chic First Lady making the scene in the City of Light: Bashar at a summit for Mediterranean leaders, Asma at the Louvre and Centre...
...well they should. Not so long ago the Syrian first couple were personae non grata in Western capitals. The U.S., which accuses Syria of sponsoring terrorism, led an effort to isolate the country diplomatically and economically. And in a rare instance of Franco-American harmony, France had its own grudge against Syria: the 2005 assassination of Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese Prime Minister and close friend of former French President Jacques Chirac, an act for which many in the West blamed Syria...
...Syria is back in style. The invitation to Paris is ostensibly a reward for the the start of indirect peace talks between Syria and Israel (through Turkish mediation.) But it's also recognition that attempts to isolate Syria have failed, and that the West needs Syrian help for resolving some of the biggest problems in the Middle East. For its part, Syria wants to come even further out of the cold. While in Paris, President Assad told French television that in the event of direct talks under American sponsorship, there could be peace between Syria and Israel within two years...
...deal on the North's nukes. Japan is still furious over Pyongyang's less-than-full account of the Japanese citizens it kidnapped in the 1970s and '80s, while members of the Bush Administration remain apoplectic that the North would apparently pay no price for its alleged aid to Syria for a nuclear reactor that Israel destroyed last September. (They are also skeptical that Pyongyang will ever come clean about its alleged uranium-enrichment program, which U.S. negotiators believe it developed along with the plutonium program it is now shutting down.) Now, as Park Wang Ja heads home...
...steamrolled Saddam's military, few of the casualties are American. But knowing what waits for these troops after this story ends (the resistance, the IEDS), makes us fear for them. We get a few chilling glimpses, as when the unit finds a dead fighter carrying papers from Syria. Some of the men rejoice at killing a "terrorist," but Lieutenant Nate Fick (Stark Sands) asks, "Isn't that the exact opposite of what we wanted to have happen here? Two weeks ago, he was still a student in Syria...