Here We Go: War With Syria Has Begun

[Dinger]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/06/07/iraq.main/index.html

[SteppingRazor]

1. Huh?

We're fighting in a town 40 miles from the Syrian border, so we must be invading Syria?

[Dinger]

4. Oh, I'm Sure It's Nothing

Not to worry

[wtmusic]

6. Yes, I'm sure the US will respect the sovereignty of Syria

There *are* reports that the WMDs might be there, though

[SteppingRazor]

12. I'm not saying we'd respect their soversignty.

I'm also not saying we wouldn't invade Syria if Bush wanted to. What I am saying is that providing a link to a story about a fight within Iraq's borders and casting it as the lead up to a Syrian invasion is a bit like yelling "The sky is falling," isn't it?

[Broken Acorn]

16. Hasn't the sky already fallen?

And we now are living in bizzaro world?

[Dinger]

14. Well, There Ya Go!

[SteppingRazor]

7. Despite your sarcasm, you're right.

It's just another day of bombing and blood in Bush's Iraq.

Love the picture by the way. I'm a big Cash man myself :)

[wtmusic]

2. "the push is more of a precision-style show of force"

-- planned long before that meeting -- not a mission to destroy houses and neighborhoods."

No doubt carried out with the same precision as the assault on Fallujah :eyes:

[neweurope]

3. Did I miss something? It said "not far from the Syrian border"

but still in Iraq, didn't it?

---------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[gordianot]

5. That would depend on how Syria fits into ** oil-energy strategy.

Doubt if the profit and return on investment would work out for a full blown war with Syria.

However, anything is possible for ** crime family.

[InternalDialogue]

11. Syria's value

Not that I'm implying war with Syria is imminent, but Syria's value lies in giving Iraqi oil a land route to the Mediterranean. Safer to run tankers through the Mediterranean than south from Iraq in the Persian Gulf -- as long as Iran is sovereign, that is. Is that worth a war? I suspect it's on the table, depending on how much Iraqi/American oil is bottlenecked in the next year in the Strait of Hormuz.

And you may have known all that and just chose fewer words to say it, in which case... have a great Tuesday!

:)

[lady lib]

8. Fighting in Iraq near the Syrian border does not equal war w/Syria

It just doesn't.

[Dinger]

15. I Sincerely Hope Not

[RaleighNCDUer]

17. And fighting in Vietnam on the Cambodian border did not mean

a war on Cambodia.

Until it did.

What kind of 'active pursuit' incursion would be needed to cause a reaction by the Syrian military, which would then prompt a reaction for the US forces?

As I've said before, Syria will need to go down because a war in Iran will shut off the shipping lanes in the Straits of Hormuz. We will need secure pipelines to Iraqi oil before we pick a fight with Iran - and a fight with Iran is the whole point of it.

I wish I could think it was tinfoil hat stuff.

[lady lib]

18. You're a lot more knowledgeable about this than I am.

But do you really think the U.S. has the military personnel to fight wars with both Syria and Iran? Yes, we could blast them to hell from the air, but at some point we need forces on the ground and we just don't have them right now. Am I right? (I'm honestly asking and not picking an argument.)

[RaleighNCDUer]

19. All these base closings mean consolidation of resources,

freeing up tens of thousands of troops who are currently on garrison duty. The troops are out there. Even during the height of Vietnam, fewer than 1 in 5 draftees wound up going over there, and many of them were mechanics, cooks, clerks...personnel whose jobs are now being done by KBR. That would be enough to get us going in Syria. I fully expect the draft to be reinstated before 07, which would be the right time to go after Iran -- trying to guarantee a continuous policy, i.e. republican control, during the initial stages of our war against the perfidious Persians.

Just watch out for the precipitating event that will kick off the draft.

[lady lib]

22. OMG, that makes too much sense.

This is insane. Somehow, someway it needs to be stopped!

[underpants]

21. See "Polk's War"

The whole Iraq war has been eerily similiar to "Polk's War" and this is right out of the same playbook-put troops where you know they will be fired on to provoke the rush to war.

[tkmorris]

9. No change I can see

We've been fighting in Iraq "not far from the Syrian border" for 2 years now. I don't see this as any different.

[comsymp]

13. Hell, we've CROSSED the Syrian border for 2 years now...

Even shot up some Syrian border guards back in '03, IIRC.

[MoonRiver]

10. I think they want to but without a "coalition of the willing" and no draft

we're spread way too thin to take on another country. Syria has a major army, not just the sticks and stones in Saddam's arsenal. But if the US suffers another terror attack bush will immediately push for a draft and an invasion of one or more of the following: Syria, Iran, Korea. And just like IWR I'd wager that the same gutless wonders in Congress will rubber stamp his draft bill.

[underpants]

20. Hey CNN you idiots that is a 113 not a Bradley