Syrians Put On Notice

One of the phrases I hear quite a bit from my mother is "govern yourself accordingly." It's basically her way of putting me on notice that she's watching me closely for some reason and that I'll probably hear about real quick if I screw up (luckily I only hear the phrase maybe once a week now, used to be almost daily when I lived at home).

Colin Powell has basically put the Syrians on notice that they need to govern themselves accordingly.

Powell's main job as the Secretary of State is to be the chief negotiator for the country. He's supposed to be the one to bite his tongue and to talk to the weasels no matter how evil they are. And he's always supposed to be polite about it.

Publicly announcing that a nation and its leader have lied to you is not the most polite thing you can do, especially when you are enroute to deliver a stiff and probably uncomfortable message to that nation. Yet that is exactly what Powell did to Syria.

Baby Bashar needs to take heed of the change in tone here. He is no longer that mosquito who's annoying, but not bad enough to make a real attempt to kill. We just changed from gently swatting at it to taking out an industrial pest fogger. Baby Bashar has been put on notice.

It will be interesting to see how the Syrians react to this. I can see there being a culture clash and misunderstanding here. In the US we put truth on a pedestal as one of the most important virtues in our society. In Syria, and most Arab countries, truth is relative. If it's a relative, you tell the truth. If not, well anything is ok then.

Bashar made the mistake of lying to Powell once. He got caught and was publicly nailed. I'm thinking if he does it again, he may find himself negotiating with Rumsfeld instead of Powell.