Terror in the Levant Who attacked the U.S. embassy in Damascus – and why?

[helderheid]

To hear the American government and its Israeli allies tell it, the struggle in the Middle East is a straightforward black-and-white one, which pits the Forces of Goodness (Washington and Tel Aviv) against "terrorists" and terrorist-supporting states like Iran and Syria. This narrative enables the Americans and the Israelis to mask their own agendas – regional hegemony, territorial expansion (on Israel's part), and access to cheap oil – behind the "war on terrorism" rubric. It also lets them lump together groups – including Hamas, Hezbollah, and al-Qaeda – that are not only different but opposed to each other's interests, their only commonality being that they are Arab, Muslim, and armed. However, every once in a while, reality intrudes and the official narrative suffers a direct hit: the latest such incident is the recent attack on the U.S. embassy in Damascus.

Syrian security forces gunned down three men who tried to blow up the U.S. embassy in Damascus Tuesday, wounding and capturing another. The upscale Abu Romana area, where embassies and the houses of the rich nestle near the presidential palace of Bashar al-Assad, was the scene of a 30-minute gun battle. Shouting religious slogans and firing RPGs, four Takfiri, reportedly members of Jund al-Sham (Soldiers of Syria), a shadowy jihadist Sunni group vaguely affiliated with al-Qaeda, stormed the building. One Syrian guard was killed and two were wounded, in what is being described as a failed attempt to detonate a car bomb in front of the embassy. Eleven civilian bystanders were injured.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed her gratitude for the Syrian response. Tony Snow echoed this uncharacteristic note of civility and thanks to the Syrians, opining that American gratitude "does not mean they are an ally. We are hoping they will become an ally and make the choice of fighting against terrorists."

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http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=9693

[whistle]

1. Since you are posting Justin Raimondo take at look at his piece

from September 11, 2006
The 9/11 Enigma, Revisited
Why do many Americans doubt the official narrative?

[Poll_Blind]

2. The Mighty Wurlitzer plays on. In the information age, Truth does not...

...come cheaply. Political, ideological, religious chaff jam the radar of anyone trying to get a lock on the truth of a situation.

  I'm grateful it's mostly we Americans and Israelis who live in this carefully-manicured topiary of monsters, some real...some most definitely imagined. The rest of the world is able to see things a bit more objectively. It's not pleasant to realize that you live inside one of the most efficiently-deceptive media echo chambers ever invented. However, it is comfort (of a sort) to know that the majority of others live in environments tinged with a bit more truth and reality.

  I've had moderators intone that things like criticism of the attacks on Ahamdinejad, for instance, smack of some love of him or his cause instead of trying to sort through two packets of propaganda, one for and one against, in search of the truth of a matter.

  When the Wurlitzer plays, some may decry it but I look down and see them unconsciously tapping their foot.

PB

[tigereye]

3. as funky as their intents and alliances are

1. Syria is still a dictatorship

2. The same folks who brought us al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia probably dislike the Syrian power structure just as much as they dislike the Saudi princes' control

3. Asad doesn't want an invasion force breathing down his neck.

Your point about lumping all the "terrorists" in one pile in well taken, though. Alas there seem to be a surfeit of varieties....with radically ( no pun intended) different agendas.

Thanks for a thoughtful post, it seems to be a rare commodity in GD these days.