'Diplomatic' solutions, take two?

Stop me if you've heard any of this before....

The Bush administration said Monday it will consider diplomatic, economic and other steps against Syria, saying it was concerned that Damascus is harboring fleeing Iraqi leaders and developing its chemical weapons capabilities.

Oh, stop there?  Yeah, that does sound a bit familiar -- harbouring people we want to "get" and developing chemical weapons -- I wonder if they have any better proof this time?

"With respect to Syria, of course we will examine possible measures of a diplomatic, economic or other nature as we move forward," Powell said.

Oh.  Of course.  Tell me, will you be sincere in looking to diplomatic solutions this time?  Or will it just be another delaying tactic to get enough soldiers in place to start another war?

The secretary said he had no specifics on who the Iraqi leaders are who have allegedly fled to Syria. "I can't quantify how many might be slipping across the border," Powell said.

At the White House, presidential spokesman Ari Fleischer had a similar message. Fleischer rejected Syria's fresh denials of having a chemical weapons program. "It is well corroborated" that Syria has such a program, Fleischer said.

Ah. Well.  That's good enough for me.  Ari said it.  I believe it.  That ends it.  Right? 

Ugh.  Ok, sorry...  I can't keep that up for any length of time.  If Ari said it, it tends to make me want to question it even more.  Ari - along with President Bush, Colin Powell, Donald Rumsfeld and, oh, most of the rest of the administration - isn't very high on my "credibility scale".  The fact that, so far, there's still no evidence of chemical or biological weapons, or the presence of al-Qaeda, doesn't exactly help them any, either.  Sure, they could still find some, and I realize that is a very good possiblity - but as of now, they haven't - and yet they think I'm going to believe them when they start flinging the same basic accusations about another country.  Sorry.  Not gonna happen.

Syria's deputy ambassador to the United States, Imad Moustapha, said the administration's flurry of charges was a "campaign of misinformation and disinformation" meant to divert attention from the "human catastrophes" taking place in wartime Iraq.

Hmmm...  Ya think?

I know this whole thing with Syria has been building for the last week or so, but I'm still flabbergasted by it.  It's bad enough when Hollywood takes a popular movie, decides to make a sequal, and takes almost exactly the same set up, but just plugs a few new characters into the forumla - but for our government to do it, and to be so blatantly obvious about it, is just sickening.  I just hope that maybe the way this has come up all of a sudden, with essentially the same charges and same rhetoric, maybe those who supported the Iraq War will at least take a moment to pause and wonder why we're rushing into a replay, but believe me, I'm not holding my breath.