As if two wars weren’t enough (one in Afghanistan and one in Iraq), the Bush administration is pondering action in a third nation.

Syria, Iraq’s neighbor to the west, may be the next target in what seems to be an ongoing quest to tame the Middle East.

The administration is claiming that Syria has been harboring weapons of mass destruction and granting Saddam Hussein’s Republican Guard, as well as other branches of the military, a safe haven out of U.S. military reach.

White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer even went so far as to label Syria a “rogue nation,” further warning the government to “seriously ponder the implications of their actions in terms of harboring Iraqis who need not and should not be harbored.”

Syria is no doubt a hotbed of lawlessness. It has a long-standing reputation for allowing known militant groups such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah to flourish.

But is beating the war drum again, less than a month after bombs sprinkled Baghdad, a sound decision?

The United States can’t spread itself too thin without risking defeat. And if it isn’t victorious in its attempt to tame the Arab world, why waste money, lives and effort?

The American military machine is undoubtedly unmatched, but battling terrorism (where war has no rules) on terrorists’ soil can be a death wish.

This doesn’t mean discarding efforts to protect the world from malicious warmongers, but give the region time to breathe.

It is not necessary to storm into Damascus at this point. Can’t diplomacy, as exhausting as it may seem, take the front seat for now? Pressure Syria to curtail its weapons programs and let Baghdad’s fall serve as a brutal lesson for now.

University Wire — Daily Titan, California State University — Fullerton