Syria, the next Big Thing
Syria has become the new focus of the West and things are changing there. As we discussed the other day, the Obama Administration has come to the conclusion that Syria’s government crossed the “red line” by using sarin gas on their rebels. The Russians dispute that conclusion;
“I will say frankly that what was presented to us by the Americans does not look convincing,” Mr. Ushakov told reporters in Moscow Friday, just a day after the White House said it had confirmed the regime’s use of sarin gas.
“It would be hard even to call them facts.”
But, according to the Washington Post, the US is preparing to deliver weapons to the rebels through Turkey and Jordan;
Syria experts cautioned that the opposition to Assad remains a chaotic mix of secular and Islamist elements, highlighting the risk that some American-provided munitions may be diverted from their intended recipients.
But U.S. officials involved in the planning of the new policy of increased military support announced by the Obama administration Thursday said that the CIA has developed a clearer understanding of the composition of rebel forces, which have begun to coalesce in recent months. Within the past year, the CIA also created a new office at its headquarters in Langley to oversee its expanding operational role in Syria.
Meanwhile, Egypt’s president Morsi is closing Egypt’s embassy in Syria and withdrawing their diplomatic mission. Iran has elected a new president, said to be more moderate than Ahmadinejad, but since the mullahs still run Iran, we probably won’t see much change. But before the elections, Iran had decided that they’ll increase their support for the Assad regime in Syria by sending 4000 of their Revolutionary Guards to bolster the government.
Iran is now fully committed to preserving Assad’s regime, according to pro-Iranian sources which have been deeply involved in the Islamic Republic’s security, even to the extent of proposing to open up a new ‘Syrian’ front on the Golan Heights against Israel.
The Iranians have also, apparently rocketed a refugee camp in Iraq to take out a couple of dissidents, I guess to punctuate their election results. Typically, the UN & US are blaming the Iraqis for the attack instead of the Iranians;
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Representative for Iraq, Martin Kobler and the country representative for the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Claire Bourgeois, said they are “deeply concerned that today’s tragic violence has occurred despite their repeated requests to the government of Iraq to provide Camp Liberty and its residents with protective measures, including T-Walls.”
The camp has been attacked with missiles twice before — on Feb. 9 and April 29.
Stars & Stripes reports that some Patriot missile batteries and some F16 fighters will remain in Jordan after deploying their for a joint exercise.
Throughout the past week U.S. military officials remained tight lipped about that possibility. It was unclear how many troops would be required to stay behind with the Patriots and F-16s, but Little’s statement said: “All other U.S. personnel assigned to Jordan for Eager Lion will depart at the conclusion of the exercise.”
Tar baby time.
Category: Terror War
Gotta find a new shiny object to take the focus off all the scandals.
I hope OUR next big thing is to say f@ck them all and let them fight their our battles. No matter who wins they will still be American hating ass holes. The thought of Jordanian pilots in an F-16 is not warm and fuzzy to me. Too close to Israel. But then again no one in the Admin is asking Israel what they think of all this. And where the HELL is Europe in all this. They are happy to sit back and critisize the US, but do nothing to help in their own back yard. Again screw ’em…to a wall.
Hmm… I think the U.N. has been doing too much Israel-blaming. So, it is the fault of the Iraqi government for not taking proper precautions to not be attacked by a surprise missile strike from Iran because they didn’t have… T-walls? Since when does a T-wall stop missiles and rockets?
As for Syria, I do not think we should be getting involved in arming the Al Qaeda and Hezbollah-backed fighters in the civil war. I mean, look what good it did us in Afghanistan in the 80s.
@3 Thank you Flagwaver. The UN gets a bad sandwich at the lunch buffet and it is Israel’s fault. Arming an unstable bunch of thugs never got anyone anywhere, except in a ground war.
What amazes the hell out of me is how knowledgable the folks here at TAH are. I mean it. I would guess that a at least 95% of the public couldn’t find Syria on a blank map, let alone have some semblance of understanding about its domestic and international issues.
Oh… here we go again.
Oh, well, it’ll give Imadinnerjacket a chance to use all those helicopters and stuff he’s been building in those Iranian desert facilities of his. Maybe he’ll even get to use those bunkers he had someone build.
Ya never know.
NO way this will end well.
@7 Absolutely right. This is stinking to high heaven all ready and getting worse every day. This Admin, especially the king of the State Department will help stir this pot of shit until the demand comes from the middle east and our liberal left that we now MUST do something. Even if it is soooo wrong!
Barry does foreign relations? What could go wrong?
This is what we all feared when this group of inept clowns was elected into office… They haven’t a freaking clue what they are doing, are naïve beyond all description, and it makes Jimmy Carter look almost half competent as CiC in comparison….
@10 Right on. Jimmy Carter was a buck toothed, peanut shittin’ ass hole but I think…I think I would take him over Obama any day. What a sad state of affairs to even think such thoughts.
For all his faults, and there certainly are many, Carter did have the good sense to preposition a multitude of assets which later came in very handy. For that we must give credit where credit is due.
Otherwise, he was/is pretty useless.
And so it begins. The U.S. involvement in Syria not only proves to be overdue (for those who believe “we” should have armed the rebels or established a no-fly zone long ago), but it also appears to be ill-conceived. History has shown anytime the U.S. gives arms to a faction, years from now those arms will be used to undermine American interests and will be used to kill Americans and her allies. Like the rest of you mention, this won’t turn out well and future events will only prove the comments on this blog predicted the obvious outcome.
Like many of you, I believe our interests should be focused on rectifying the scandals within our own borders and re-establish America’s presence in the world in a positive light. I could care less what the Europeans are doing, and could care less if Arabs turn on themselves and kill each other by the bushel.
Now that we’re giving weapons to factions that fight under the flag of AQI, I can’t help to wonder if we’re contributing to our own demise.
@13 Well said. Thank you.
“I will say frankly that what was presented to us by the Americans does not look convincing,” Mr. Ushakov told reporters in Moscow Friday, just a day after the White House said it had confirmed the regime’s use of sarin gas.“It would be hard even to call them facts.” (Wash Times linked art.)
Jeez. For the first time in my life, it’s a toss-up whether I believe Ivan or our own regime. The obamaman and his hand-picked apparachiks have been lying to the American People for years. And those thingies they call facts, well, like I said, I understand exactly what Ivan means. Now that I think about it a moment, I’m with Ivan.
Sorry. That was yours truly in 15.
No matter which side we arm in this ME civil war, it will eventually come back to bite the US in the ass-HARD!
Wanna be fair to “both sides”? Nuke the entire region to a glowing glass parking lot. What could be more fair then that?
We’ve got no dog in that fight..let them deal with each other and we’ll deal with the survivor.
Understand that Code Pink and IAVA approve Obama’s use of the US military to support AQ’s fight in Syria. They plan pro-war demonstrations demonstrate their solidarity with the POTUS, and moral consistency.
I enjoyed your previous post, “Iran is the only winner in Syria,” very much.
The rebels are clearly falling under the influence of jihadists with time.
Here’s a little note I had almost forgotten about.
http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653378/s/2d5eb857/l/0Lworldnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A60C160C189898380Eputin0Ewest0Earming0Esyrian0Erebels0Ewho0Eeat0Ehuman0Eflesh0Dlite/story01.htm
Muslin dietary law forbids cannibalism. Yet the original report about this abomination occurred in May, and the man who did this vile thing did it right on camera in front of a crowd.
I think the Syrians and others have Putin worried. This is in addition to the Chinese government ramping up their military and squabbling with Japan over local islands.
And I just wanted to have a little garden….
Peace will come to that region only when it has been turned to a nuclear dessert, devoid of all human life. These folks are still fighting over the successor to the prophet. 1200 years of sectarian warfare for nothing. We should let these necromongers sort themselves out. Once they have thinned their ranks by 80 or 90 percent the world will be a better place. Let em’ all die, god will sort them out.
Oh, Roger, I think it goes back further than 1200 years.
Four round tower foundations found in northwestern Syria in 2010 date back to 15,000 years ago. They look like foundations for watch towers or something. There is plenty of evidence to show that the history of the middle east is mostly warfare punctuated by periods of bad weather and occasional peace. They could stop if they wanted to, but they don’t want to.
My biggest fear now, in the short term, is the so-often repeated mistake of mission creep.
Already, there are calls for Obama to set up a no-fly zone over the rebels, who are struggling against Syrian air power. Next step will be air strikes against Syrian air fields and munitions depots.
Obama has already been called weak for waiting this long, and he’ll be called weak for not doing more (such as the two steps named above: a no-fly zone and air strikes).
I hate to say it, but you might as well prepare for us to get sucked into another war. It will take all that Obama can do to stop it from escalating now.
Actually, the EU is arguing back and forth, the only thing the Eurocrats really excel at. The Brits and French want to help the “rebels” (who’re really just islamo-fascist goons, like in Libya), other countries like Austria don’t want to get involved (and that’s actually smart.)
Build a fence around Syria and let them kill each other.
So Obama wants to give weapons to people fighting their government yet he keeps trying to take our weapons away.
@26 Thank you for that. Obama needs to take care of his domestic messes first and stay the hell away from Syria. Let the Eurotrash handle their own back yard for once. Let them kill each other off to their and Allah’s content. I say not a plane, handgun, no fly zones, nothing. Stay away from them or we will have boots on the ground before it is over. This is a perfect Obama opportunity to divert attention from his domestic fuck ups and he WILL take advantage of it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=M_-Ie6JQquM#at=155
Far-left Irish politician Clare Daly, formerly a leader in the country’s Socialist Party, is being called “disgraceful” by her compatriots after lashing out against President Obama in the wake of his visit to Ireland for the G-8 Summit.
A Teachta Dála (member of parliament) of Dublin North, Daly mocked the Obama family for repeatedly referring to Ireland as “home” before ripping into the U.S. president’s foreign policy.
“It’s hard to know which is worse,” she added, “the outpourings of the Obamas themselves, or the sycophantic fawning over them by sections of the media and political establishment.”
She called Obama the “hypocrite of the century” for telling Irish youths the United States supports those who choose peace, while providing arms to Syrian rebels and increasing drone strikes by 200 percent.
“The reality is, by any serious examination, this man is a war criminal,” Daly declared. “He has just announced his decision to supply arms to the Syrian opposition, including the jihadists, fueling the destabilization of that region, and continuing to undermine secularism and knock-back conditions for women.”
She proceeded to excoriate the country’s Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Edna Kenny, for making Ireland “a nation of pimps, prostituting ourselves for a pat on the head” and a “lapdog of U.S. imperialism.”