Where Did I Put Those Baathists??

Oh here they are! Suddenly Syria has found Saddam's half brother and about 30 other cronies who have been running and funding the insurgency from a hideout in their country. Syria's under a lot of pressure right now, thanks to the assassination of Hariri in Lebanon and the long suspicion that they've been supporting the bad guys in Iraq.

Today there were more anti-Syrian demonstrations in Lebanon, and old Bashar Assad is about to have his hands full with the problems on both of his borders. There's even talk of military action against Syria, not by the U.S., but by the U.S. trained Iraqis who are tired of Syria sending terrorists across their border. With over 100 dead in Iraq today from another suicide bombing, things are going to get tense over there.

UPDATE: Lebanese government resigns!

However tense things might be, we can always count on Scrappleface to put things in perspective:

Syria Reduces 'Boots on Ground' in Lebanon
by Scott Ott

(2005-02-25) -- In response to international pressure, Syria again announced today that it would begin to comply with the 1989 Arab-brokered Taif accord, this time by reducing Syrian military "boots on the ground" in Lebanon by 50 percent.

"Starting today, our troops stationed in Lebanon will never have more than one boot on the ground at a time," said Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Walid Mouallem. "This will be an inconvenience to our men, who must now hop rather than march, but it effectively reduces our Lebanese footprint by 50 percent."

The announcement reaffirms Syria's long-standing intention to fulfill its 1989 commitment to withdraw from Lebanon, and was greeted with enthusiasm at the United Nations.

"Syria's concession again proves that peace agreements with dictatorships are effective tools of international diplomacy," said U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. "It is more evidence that the Bush doctrine of forced freedom is counterproductive in our enlightened age."

Mr. Annan said the United Nations will send a contingent of blue-helmeted, but unarmed, troops to monitor compliance with the new single-boot protocol.