Joshua Landis: Syria and Iran Killed Hariri But George W. Bush Is To Blame.

Is there any other way of interpreting the following paragraph from the famous Syrian apologist?

President Bush is partially to blame for Hariri’s assassination and the present round of endemic civil strife in Lebanon. […] When George W Bush proclaimed that the Syrian military was an “occupation force” and not a “positive presence” in Lebanon, the battle lines were drawn. The US had declared war on Hizbullah, Syria, and Iran. When Bush teamed up with French President Chirac to convince Rafiq Hariri to choose sides in their battle and to back UN resolutions demanding Syria’s withdrawal from Lebanon, Hariri could no longer play the man in the middle. He became a combatant in a war that he did not chose and could not win. He became its most famous victim.

So if Bush didn’t say that the Syrians were occupiers (and worked hard to convince the French and Hariri), we sheepish Lebanese would have thought they were a friendly presence? How cute.