Is Syria Next?

Today, in response to the assassination of former Prime Minister of Lebanon, Rafik Hariri, the U.S. recalled its ambassador to Syria, reportedly for "consultation". It is clear from the rhetoric used by the Bush Administration in the past that this is not a matter relating to the assassination, or even to the presence of Syrian troops in Lebanon. If the U.S. really opposed the presence of 15,000 Syrian troops in Lebanon, and wanted to do something about it, it could have done something (even war, if the example of Iraq is any indication of the preferred tactics of the Adminsitration) because Syria was defying a push by many Lebanese and the United Nations that Syria pull its troops out of Lebanon. It is more likely that the reason for the recall is that the U.S. is getting ready for a much broader diplomatic push against Syria and may comprise the opening of a strategy towards expanding the war in Iraq into Syria and possibly Iran. On the latter country, it has become a clear focus of the Administration starting with the testimony in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee by Condoleeza Rice in which she lumped Iran and North Korea together as threats due to their pursuing nuclear weapons programs (remember the Axis of Evil?) and also naming Iran as a member of the "Outposts of Tyranny" and probably came in second in references only to Venuzuela as countries this Administration doesn't like and we have already tried unsuccessfully to support a coup in the latter country.