Pretty funny. After building up a case to invade Iraq based on lies Bush is now asking Sharon not to increase tensions in the region.
That, as the saying goes, is priceless.
More info on the Israeli bombing in Syria from the NY Times.
U.S. Seeks to Distance Itself From Israeli Strike in Syria
By DOUGLAS JEHL
Published: October 5, 2003
WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 ? The Bush administration sought today to distance itself from Israel's overnight airstrike on a target deep inside Syria, with senior officials saying the United States had no advance warning of the attack and did not have solid evidence that the site was in fact a terrorist training camp.
The White House said President Bush called Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel today after the raid and urged him to avoid further increasing the tensions in the region. A senior administration official said the United States was seeking "full details" about the attack.
A White House spokesman, Ken Lisaius, said Mr. Bush and Mr. Sharon had agreed "on the need to continue fighting terrorism in the region."
But the Bush administration seemed to be avoiding any criticism of the raid, which was the first deep strike by Israel into Syria since the 1973 Middle East war and was described by Israel as a retaliation for the suicide bombing on Saturday in northern Israel that killed 19 people.
The group that claimed responsibility for that attack, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, maintains offices and other bases of operations inside Syria, and Israel said its airstrike targeted a site used by that group for training. But the senior administration official said the evidence of such a link was "very amorphous."
In its reluctance to criticize the Israeli raid, the American stance was at odds with that most of Europe and the Arab world, whose leaders roundly condemned what they called a dangerous escalation by Israel of tensions in the Middle East. At Syria's request, members of the United Nations Security Council were planning to discuss the attack in an emergency session in New York later today.
Speaking in advance of that meeting, White House officials reiterated the administration's long-standing criticism of what the United States has long called Syria's role as a state sponsor of terrorism. "We've consistently told Syria that it must cease harboring terrorists and make a clean break from those responsible for planning and directing terrorist attacks from Syrian soil," a senior administration official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
With its potential to inflame even further tensions in the Middle East, the Israeli raid comes at a sensitive time for the Bush administration, which is already coping with the unexpectedly violent aftermath to the American-led invasion of Iraq, as well as the flare-up in hostilities between Israel and the Palestinians.
Just as the United States has done Afghanistan and Iraq, and in launching a smaller strike against what were described as terrorist targets in Yemen, Israel has cast its strike into Syria as justifiable in a war against terrorism. Some Bush administration officials critical of Syria's ties to terrorism have referred to training camps in Syria as well as in neighboring Lebanon, where Syria remains the dominant power. But the State Department's most recent report on international terrorism, released last April, makes no mention of any such camps.
Having laid out an American doctrine claiming the right to launch pre-emptive attacks against terrorist targets, and having hinted that targets in Syria and Lebanon could fall under this definition, the Bush administration has consistently said that it also recognizes Israel's right to retaliate in response to terrorist attacks.
But in response to previous Israeli attacks, in Lebanon as well as the West Bank and Gaza, the administration has also consistently urged that any Israeli retaliation remain measured. It appeared today that the White House would follow a similar pattern in response the strike inside Syria.
"You can't say, `don't do anything,' " a senior Bush administration official said today, outlining the standard American message to Israel about its responses to acts of terrorism. "But you can say, `don't make matters worse.' "
As recently as Saturday, the Bush administration had appeared to be on the verge of taking a tough new line against Israel for its construction of fences around settlements in the West Bank. In an interview with The Washington Post that was published on Saturday, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell described the step as counterproductive, and he said the administration was debating how best to respond.
But those concerns have now been overshadowed by Saturday's attack in Haifa and by Israel's attack into Syria on a target about 10 miles from the Syrian capital that Israel said was used as a training camp by the militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
An administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity said that Israel had not informed the United States about the raid into Syria until "several hours" after the attack. But the United States military and intelligence agencies have always kept a close watch on the air space in the region, particularly because of the American military occupation in Iraq, and military officials said the United States knew about the raid before receiving the official notification from Israel.
Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, the Bush administration has repeatedly called on Syria to break its ties with terrorist groups, particularly those like Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which it has long provided a safe haven. Syria has denied supporting terrorism, but says it supports resistance efforts by those groups and others against Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza
The administration has amplified its criticism of Syria since the war in Iraq. After Mr. Powell visited Syria in April, the Damascus government forced some of those groups to close their offices in Damascus. But administration officials have described those efforts as nothing more than first steps, and they say the groups have continued to use Syria and Lebanon as bases of operation.
The State Department's most recent annual report on terrorism says that Syria "has continued to provide political and limited material support to a number of Palestinian groups," including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, as well as the two main factions of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. It notes that Syria also permits Iran to resupply the Lebanese group Hezbollah, through shipments that pass through Damascus.
But the report also notes that "the Syrian Government has not been implicated directly in an act of terrorism since 1986."