The Trouble with Syria

An assassination in Lebanon focuses U.S. attention on Damascus. What price will Assad pay?

Rafiq Hariri was a bold, self-made billionaire but a prudent politician. Syrian troops occupied his country and bossed its politics, yet during two terms as Lebanon's dynamic Prime Minister, he was careful never to oppose Syria head on. When he was summoned to Damascus last summer to endorse changes in his country's constitution that would allow Lebanon's Syria-controlled puppet President to remain in power, he bowed to the demand despite his strong opposition. When he returned to Beirut with his arm in a white sling, wags joked that he had undergone a painful arm twisting. But some close to Hariri had...

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