Unserious About Syria<2>

But it would be wrong to say that Syria pays no price when its role in terrorism is exposed. When in 1986, Nasser Hindawi sought to blow up

an El Al airliner at London's Heathrow airport using a bomb later discovered to have been supplied by the Syrian embassy, London responded by

withdrawing its ambassador in Damascus -- and offering to return him after a few weeks.

It would also be wrong to say that Syria does nothing when pressured to cut off support to terror groups. In September 1990, then-Secretary

of State James Baker met the late Syrian dictator Hafiz Assad, giving him a detailed account of Syrian terror sponsorship. Syria responded --

by tracing and killing the three Jordanian agents who had supplied the information.

At that time, the U.S. was wooing Syria to send troops to help eject Saddam from Kuwait. Here, too, Syria responded -- sending tens of

thousands of troops for a prolonged sojourn in their tents in the Saudi desert, while in Lebanon other Syrian troops quietly eliminated the

last Christian militias opposing it and slaughtered hundreds who surrendered with bullets to the head. The only consequence Damascus had to

think through was on which military hardware to spend the billions with which Saudi Arabia munificently rewarded it.

Syria perennially disappoints, yet continues to be courted. How else can it be that Colin Powell boasted in 2002 of compelling Syria to close

down terrorist offices in Damascus which remain open for business years later?

SYRIA'S IS A TEFLON regime. Why is not fully clear, but the best explanation yet offered can be found in Barry Rubin's The Truth About Syria

(Palgrave, 2007), which seeks the clue to the regime's ambitions and successes in its peculiar origins (dominated by Alawis, a heterodox

Muslim sect) and appeal (seeking legitimacy simultaneously in Arab nationalist and Islamist championship).