■"Time to Squeeze Syria," op-ed by Jim Hoagland, Washington Post, 16 September 2004, p. A31.

■"Saudis Take a Small Dose of Democracy: Results of Local Ballots May Determine Whether Electoral Experiment Is Widened," by Scott Wilson, Washington Post, 16 September 2004, p. A18.

Strong words from Jim Hoagland on the need to finally start pushing Syria over its "decades-long control over Lebanon," calling it "an urgent new task" in transforming the region. Recently, he notes, the UN passed a Security Council resolution that called on Syria to withdraw its troops from the country by a 159-0 vote. Why? Assad the Younger is strong-arming the Lebanese Parliament to extend the presidential term of his preferred lackey, and promising to double the number of troops in the country by year's end. Meanwhile, Beirut continues to re-establish itself as a regional vacation spot, despite all those years of civil strife, so you'd have to think that if Syria ever got out, Lebanon would be able to reconnect itself to the outside world as it once was.

In the Gulf, Saudi Arabia continues to try and head off Osama bin Laden's appeal at the "pass." Besides passing out jobs to young male Saudis that previously went to guest workers, now the House of Saud is passing out ballots in local elections that will pick half of the seats on municipal council boards around the country. This is a first in more than four decades and the first done on a national scale in over seven decades. Why did it take so long? I guess because America didn't decide to invade one of its neighbors and seek to install a democracy until last year.

Here's the silent kicker: a new by-law says everyone over 21 can vote, unless they're in the military/security forces. Did it say women could vote? No. But it didn't say they couldn't either . . ..