Logical Arab Leader?

The Syrian Times ran an interview yesterday that they conducted with President Bashar. Simply trying to muddle through the translation is tough enough, but the logic (or lack thereof) employed by President Bashar, is well - painful.

Bashar employs numerous logical fallacies including, most prominently, circular reasoning and a tendency to change the topic of conversation. Now, all politicians are guilty of using these tactics because they are intellectually easy, but I have noticed over time that Arab leaders in particular have a tendency to rely on them exclusively.

One of my favorite comments:

The President said that the logical thing is to implement the mutual defence agreement. According to this agreement, it is natural that when an Arab country is invaded, all the Arab countries defend this invaded country. Instead of putting this agreement into implementation, some countries provided the aggressors with facilities, at a time when other neighbouring countries refused to offer such facilities.

By this statement, the President is proposing an Arab mutual defense pact, which is needed because some nations chose to violate this defense pact, which has not even been written or implemented. It is needed because it was violated and it was violated because it was needed. I think I'm getting dizzy.

Another awe inspiring line:

He pointed out that Iraq issue is not separate from the cause of Palestine whether in respect with the Americans, the Israelis and the Arab countries.

I'm not seeing the relationship between Iraq and "Palestine." And it's not like the rest of the interview clarifies this point - on the contrary, the statement seems to be totally disconnected from anything else in the interview. Sure, he references Palestine quite a bit, but he never makes a connection between Iraq and "Palestine."

I've been reading with some interest the reports that Syria might be itching to get into the fight in Iraq. After having read this interview, I believe that they are probably just engaging in some heavy-duty saber rattling. But with the logical disconnects in Bashar's thinking, who knows?