It was one of the funniest pieces that ever appeared in the Post.

"Libya, China and Syria today announced they had formed the 'Axis of Just as Evil,' which they said would be way eviller than that stupid Iran-Iraq-North Korea axis President George W. Bush warned of in his State of the Union address," SatireWire reported last week. "Diplomats from Syria denied they were jealous over being excluded [by Bush], although they conceded they did ask if they could join."

But like every good gag, this one contains a grain of truth. Syria should feel snubbed. In recent years, no other nation has done more to foment instability in the Middle East or promote terrorism. Earlier this week, the Post reported that al-Qaeda operatives may have already begun migrating to Lebanon -- a de facto Syrian protectorate. If the reports prove true, it is possible the West will face off against Damascus before Bush gets to any of the nations on his "official" axis list. Iran, Iraq and North Korea are all rigid dictatorships. Lebanon is more like 1994-era Afghanistan: a chaotic swirl of warlords willing to cut deals with terrorists. Unlike Afghanistan, however, Lebanon is sandwiched by staunch U.S. allies -- Turkey and Israel -- bristling with Western-grade airfields and infrastructure.

In his Sept. 20 speech, Bush declared: "Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists." Bashar Assad didn't hesitate: He put his stakes down with the terrorists. Just days after Bush's speech, the Syrian dictator hosted a pan-terrorist conference in Damascus. Representatives of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine were there, no doubt gleefully discussing their upcoming plot to assassinate Israel's tourism minister. So were Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad. All of these groups appear on the U.S. government's "priority list" of terrorist organizations. The latter three were even cited by name in Bush's State of the Union speech.

Assad not only provides direct support for these groups, he also permits them to use Lebanon as a staging area -- for terrorism, recruitment and, in Hezbollah's case, the deployment of thousands of missiles against northern Israel. Damascus has about 30,000 troops in Lebanon and has transformed the country into a colonized client state. (This is why I laugh every time I hear the charge of "colonialism" levelled by Edward Said and other Arabists against Israel. When Said travelled to Lebanon in 2000 so he could have his photo taken hurling rocks at Israel, he was standing in the most thoroughly colonized nation in the Middle East.)

Kicking Syria out of Lebanon would achieve more than protecting Israel and mopping up al-Qaeda. The Iranian-backed Hezbollah is itself a terrorist group with -- as Bush puts it -- a "global reach," and one that has attacked the United States many times. In April, 1983, a Hezbollah suicide bomber attacked the U.S. embassy in Beirut, killing 63 employees. In October, 1983, another bomber killed 241 marines. A few months later, the CIA's Lebanon station chief was kidnapped, tortured and murdered. And in 1985, the group hijacked TWA flight 847 and murdered a U.S. passenger.

The mastermind behind these terrorist acts, Hezbollah's former "security chief," Imad Mugniyah, remains at-large in Lebanon, having eluded U.S. capture for the past two decades. According to the well-connected Lebanon news source Middle East Intelligence Bulletin, however, the CIA may have been on the verge of a major break earlier this year. Elie Hobeika, a veteran Christian politician and the man responsible for the 1982 Sabra and Shatilla refugee camp massacres, was reportedly attempting to provide information about Mugniyah to the United States. But before he could liaise with the CIA, he was killed in a massive car bomb explosion on Jan. 24.

"The most important piece of evidence is the fact that the assassination took place at Hobeika's residence in Hazmieh," the MEIB reported. "[This is] a major stronghold of Syrian intelligence. Planning an operation in this area would have been very difficult and risky unless the perpetrators had a go-ahead from Damascus."

Before Mr. Bush read Congress his "with us or against us" speech, he sent an advance copy to the National Security Council. When the White House got the draft back, the passage, "Any nation that harbours or supports terrorism will be regarded by the U.S. as hostile," was annotated with the scribble: "What about Syria?" In response, the speech was revised to read, "any nation that continues to harbour or support terrorism."

In other words, Bush gave Syria the chance to change teams. Damascus replied by continuing its support of terrorism and facilitating a hit on an informant who might have led the United States to a terrorist mastermind. Seems like the evil three has become the gang of four.