Syria: Leaders’ Fears of U.S. Attack a Factor in Domestic Repression

In The National yesterday, Phil Sands highlighted excerpts from former British Prime Minister Tony Blair‘s memoirs (entitled A Journey), in which Blair confirms Syrian fears that the U.S. considered attacking Damascus following the invasion of Iraq. Blair asserts in his book that Dick Cheney wanted to “work…through the whole lot, Iraq, Syria, Iran, dealing with all their surrogates in the course of it – Hizbollah, Hamas, etc.” In Blair’s view, Syrian leaders reacted to the possibility of a U.S. strike by, among other things, repressing domestic dissent and imprisoning pro-democracy activists. Sands adds, “That crackdown continues to this day.”