I don't think we need to be too much concerned about the Syrian military.
I just saw the Syrian foreign minister on Charlie Rose. I was fairly well convinced that Syrian isn't the problem that seems to be depicted by the talking heads on the News. There was one point I wish Charlie would have asked and that is that if Saddam's top people were to be found in Syria would Syria be willing to turn them over to the Iraqi govt. Personnally I think it would be better if Syria would make assurances that any of the Saddam's people would be prevented from LEAVING Syria. And if the US wants to get information from these people then the US could work with Syria in joint intel on any of key people they have. I also think if we have any significant interest in these key Saddam members, we want them to remain alive- I see little value in having these people dead.
I didn't complete buy what the Syria minister said- in particular about it's tendency not to friendly with the Saddam regime- over last few decades, yes; but recently I think Syria had a better relationship. I think that Saddam regime was desperately trying to find allies in the region, and therefore made big steps towards getting a better relationship with Syria.
Syria's close relationship to France was also something Saddam would value.
So, the question is what could Saddam give to Syria? Oil is obvious and proven. What about WMD, and in particular nuclear material?
Syria has for a long time been on the US terrorist lists. Could this warming relationship between Iraq and Syria been one of the major pieces of data which lead the President to see a strong connection between Saddam's regime and global terrorism?
Anyways I think that the US is finished showing the stick to Syria, now I think we will try carrots. I think that after Colin Powel has visited Syria, the US will start leaning on Israel [meanwhile giving Israel some time, so that it do things, which might result in the US not needing to lean very hard or getting more of a carrot].
The Syria UN proposal for the Arab region not having WMD is very interesting development. It is probably something the US could use [even though it seems to be made as a way to defeat the US efforts].