The sixth exchange over Lebanon's independence, begun yesterday, is complete. The world has Damascus' second response. Syrian dictator Bashar Assad intends to jabber in perpetuity, to render obligation meaningless, to keep Lebanon as his misbegotten own:

President Bashar Assad, responding to weeks of intense pressure, announced Saturday that Syria would move its troops to the Lebanese-Syrian border in a two-step pullback that he said should satisfy international demands for a complete pullout.

...In a cleverly worded address to parliament, Assad said, "We would not stay one day if there was Lebanese consensus on the departure of Syria," failing to state that Damascus wields decisive influence with Lebanese officials.

"Disdainfully" is more appropriate than "cleverly." No crueler joke is played on people under tyranny than when their oppressors and foreign enablers jeer, "if you want to be free, why don't you say so?" By all means, climb down from the cross. Design or habit, the Ba'athist declaration was received by a pointed mockery of the spontaneous, popular demonstrations in Beirut:

Plainclothes Syrian security agents stood outside the two-story People's Assembly building in Damascus' downtown Salhiya neighborhood as police towed away cars parked on streets leading to the legislature. Two large screens and loudspeakers were installed outside the building to allow people outside to follow the speech.

About 3,000 Syrians gathered outside ahead of the afternoon speech, many carrying pictures of Assad and his father, the late President Hafez Assad, or Syrian flags. They shouted slogans, including: "Oh God Almighty, safeguard Bashar our leader!" and "Sharon listen, the Syrian people will never bow!" in reference to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Syria's archenemy.

The article does not specify whether images of Syria's Emmanuel Goldstein appeared on the People's Jumbotron during appropriate speech passages, or if Newspeak dictionaries were available to the handpicked spectators for throwing.

Withdrawal will initially not even be considered. Insisting that he is not stuck, the son of Hafez has publicly wagered the United States' word to be worth what it has always been through the Assad reign: nothing. Denouncement in the "strongest possible terms," an envoy to be kept waiting on the runway, an agreement to be violated immediately; nothing. The Syrian dictator believes he'll play his tricks anyway, the stalemate will solidify into an impasse, the Lebanese will lose heart and Syrian brownshirts will close in.

But that's only what reigns in Bashar's mind. He escapes only if he can convince President Bush that Syria — prone and splayed — is not, in fact, pinioned. Assad's in quite a lot of trouble; Bashar's statement is an insult to the demands placed and doubled on him, and without the slightest pretense of compromise it is, ironically, an impatient man's delay. As I considered six days ago, a proroguing Damascus should meet an incisive White House.