Neo Cons Last Flurries

Neo-conservatives and hawks within the Bush administration have long clamored for expanding Middle Eastern conflicts into Syria, which was named as one of the three countries in Bush's famous "axis of evil".

Indeed, Bush's neo-conservative deputy national security adviser, Elliott Abrams, told Israeli officials during a high-level meeting that the US would not object if Israel extended its 2006 war with Hezbollah in Lebanon into Syria.

But if the cross-border attack was an attempt by hawks to lure Syria into a war, it appears to have failed; Syria has engaged in a measured response, although it did call the act of aggression "a dangerous violation of the Syrian sovereignty and the UN principles and conventions", in its letter to the UN.

Syria's press attache in London, Jihad Makdissi, told the British Broadcasting Corporation that the US should have approach Syria first.

"If they have any proof of any insurgency, instead of applying the law of the jungle and penetrating, unprovoked, a sovereign country, they should come to the Syrians first and share this information," he said.