More proof the Bush Doctrine is Working

Bashar Assad understands that if he does not willingly leave Lebanon, the US will gladly force him out:

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Syria has promised to withdraw all its forces from Lebanon by April 30 and will let a United Nations team verify the pullout, a U.N. envoy said Sunday.

Damascus ordered the withdrawal, demanded by a U.N. Security Council resolution seven months ago, after coming under intense international pressure over the Feb. 14 assassination of a Lebanese former prime minister, Rafik al-Hariri.

The U.N. envoy, Terje Roed-Larsen, said Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara had told him "all Syrian troops, military assets and the intelligence apparatus will have been withdrawn fully and completely ... by April 30, 2005."

This may well be the most significant step yet in the War on Terror. A stable Lebanon means that Israel may be able to forge some type of agreement to protect their northern border. Such a plan may entail the Israeli's ceding the Golan Heights in a three-way pact with the Lebanese, Syrians and Israel. Such an agreement would give Israel some type of peace pact with all neighbors with which they share a common border.

Assad will have to watch his back as he will be seen as weak by those non-Baath/non-Alawite factions within his country who have been suppressed in the past. The main opposition group would be fundamentalist Sunni's who may have no trepidation of avenging the slaughter in Hama.

The major problem for Lebanon will be the presence of Iran-backed Hizbullah. Walid Jumblatt, the Druze leader, will most likely step forward and may be able to ensure that the Shiite dominated Hizbullah does not usurp total power.

Jumblatt also owes Bashar Assad payback.