Ahmad Chalabi's Advise on Syria. Ahmad Chalabi has been making the rounds in DC. He met with Rumsfeld and Rice. Mostly, he was asked for his opinions of Syria. Ahmad Chalabi gave the most sober and rational analysis of Syrian politics. He advocated a US invasion of Syria because he believes that Syrian WMDs are dangerous to world stability. He said that Judith Millers will be writing about Syrian WMDs soon once she finds a newspaper to write for. But he assured US officials that the Syrians would not resist US occupation forces, and that they would in fact welcome them with "sweets and flowers" (he even identified the sweet: the Syrian cookie known as Barazi', a sesame cookie). Only a small number of US troops would be needed for the job, he insisted, and Bush would be able to give a "mission accomplished" speech within weeks after the start of the invasion. When asked about the Washington, DC-based Syrian opposition groups, he assured them that they would be hugely popular in Syria, and that the secular liberal and pro-American Syrians would run the place, and that religion and clerics would disappear from Syrian life. Chalabi went even further: he said that Syria would emerge as a democratic and liberal model, and that Arabs would rush to emulate it, and that the invasion would produce a domino effect in the region. He dismissed reports that a resistance movement would emerge under an American invasion of Syria. Having listened to his evaluation of Syrian politics, US officials felt very optimistic.