“All Syrian forces must leave Lebanon”

The White House or the State Department ought to pronounce those six words unambiguously, says a bipartisan committee of statesmen, scholars, and entrepreneurs, and thereby take the first step toward freeing the only sovereign nation on earth still ruled as the satellite of another.

The Committee is the Lebanon Study Group, and its report, ''Ending Syria's Occupation of Lebanon: The US Role,'' has just been published by the Middle East Forum. Monographs on foreign affairs are notoriously windy, vague, and full of jargon; this one is penetrating and eloquent. It can be read with profit by anyone who cares about Lebanon or US foreign policy, or who relishes clarity of thought.

And its timing is perfect: The death of Hafez Assad and Israel's departure from southern Lebanon have thrown open a window of opportunity for pressing Syria to end its Lebanese occupation.

Syrian troops entered Lebanon in 1975; between 30,000 and 40,000 of them remain there to this day, along with an untold number of secret police and intelligence agents. Three times Damascus has agreed to withdraw its forces - in the Riyadh-Cairo accord of 1976, the Fez Declaration of 1982, and the Ta'if agreement of 1989 - and three times Damascus has reneged.

The United Nations Security Council has repeatedly called for all occupying troops to leave Lebanon. Resolution 520 demands ''strict respect for Lebanon's ... political independence under the sole and exclusive authority of the Lebanese government through the Lebanese Army throughout Lebanon.'' But Syria has thumbed its nose at 520 and at every other call for a restoration of Lebanese autonomy.

Indeed, the new report points out, Syria has never recognized Lebanese sovereignty. The two states have never exchanged ambassadors. Damascus has ''flatly stated that Lebanon does not deserve independence and should be no more than a province of Syria.'' In 1990, Syrian troops forcibly crushed the last fragment of Lebanon's lawful government, killing hundreds of Lebanese citizens loyal to Prime Minister Michel Aoun. Since then, Lebanon has been ruled from Damascus via a series of puppet Presidents and Prime ministers in Beirut.

What has happened to Lebanon - once famed as the ''Switzerland of the Middle East'' - is an international crime. Its economy has been ravaged. More than 1 million Syrian workers have flooded into the country, depriving countless Lebanese of work and siphoning out at least $3 billion every year. Businesses are forced to share their earnings with unwanted Syrian ''partners.'' The country's middle class has been wrecked. Corruption - bribery, kickbacks, and extortion, most of it lining Syrian pockets - has become rampant.

And that's just the economy. Lebanon's armed forces have been turned into a wholly owned subsidiary of the Syrian military as genuine Lebanese patriots have been purged from the ranks. The judiciary, which used to be independent, is now indistinguishable from Syria's. ''Top judges regularly ... receive instructions from Syrian intelligence officials,'' the Lebanon Study Group reports.

Not surprisingly, human rights are violated wantonly. Foes of the Syrian occupation have been imprisoned and tortured - or have disappeared altogether.

Especially heartbreaking for those who remember how robust Lebanon's media used to be is the suppression of the press. Censorship is now routine. Newspapers have been closed and editors imprisoned for criticizing the government. The 52 television stations that used to operate in Lebanon have been reduced to five; of the 100 or so radio stations, 11 remain.

But the cruelest blow of all has come not from Damascus but from Washington. In the vain hope of inducing Syria to make peace with Israel, the United States has turned a blind eye to the Syrian occupation. When Assad's troops demolished Beirut's last defenders in 1990, they did so with the acquiescence of President Bush, who was willing to pay any price for Syria's support of Desert Storm. That is, to reverse Saddam's conquest of Kuwait, the White House accepted Assad's conquest of Lebanon.

All this despite the fact that Damascus has been involved in more American deaths than any regime since Vietnam's and is a perennial on the State Department's list of states that export terror.

Congress has often condemned the Syrian occupation, but executive branch appeasement goes on. ''Syria has played a constructive role as far as Lebanon is concerned,'' Secretary of State Albright said, incredibly, on June 7. ''We hope they will continue to do so.''

That is an atrocious message to be sending Damascus and a bitter betrayal of the Lebanese. There will never be peace in the Middle East as long as Lebanon is a satrapy of Syria. With Assad dead, the moment is ripe for a correction of US policy. It could begin with a simple six-word statement:

''All Syrian forces must leave Lebanon.''

Jeff Jacoby is a Globe columnist.

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