Could this be true?: http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051019/OPINION04/510190380/-1/OPINION The article from the Toledo Blade says we are "already there". That we have troops on the ground in Syria. I pray this isn't true. Is this just the mumblings of the 'liberal press' or is this some kind of Cambodia style diversion from the original plan. (Hey it worked so well for Nixon). Only Rummy and W could be this f'ing stupid.
It would be interesting. I would think that we would hear more from Syria about it though. Surely they wouldn't be too happy.
I highly doubt that if we had troops in Syria that Syria wouldn't be making it known to the world. Since that is an op-ed story and not a factual one I will take it with a grain of salt. I did not see any accounts or factual evidence to support his claims. Certainly something to observe, but to me this is just a way for this guy to try and make a correlation of the Iraq War to the Vietnam war.
I think it is an overblown version of a minor border skirmish that seems to have happened. However, there is almost no information on it in a search I did of Google news.
John Kerry: "I was in Syria on Christmas eve, 2004." Sorry. Couldn't help it. Maybe George can help us out, but is there much of a discernable border between Iraq and Syria? It is a long, long border that I believe is almost all sand, no?
It's also a straight line for the southern half, which almost certainly means it doesn't follow any topographic feature.
http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/attack/consequences/2005/1015syria.htm We should have put pressure on Syria from day one. They choose to violate the Iraqi border, we return the favor. Syria seems to be neck deep in Iraqi affairs and for Iraq to have any chance the Syrian problem must be dealt with on both political and military fronts.
He does bring up viable negatives and is basing his entire argument on a full on invasion of Syria. That hasn't happened yet and for all we know the operations are an attempt to secure that huge border. I doubt I would support a war with Syria. Not now. We fvcked that chance from the get go.
Wow, a foreign policy issue where you're more "conservative" than me. I'm more worried about turning a headache into a cancer. I don't consider Syria to be that much of a problem.
Don't tell Karl. I agree with the headache to cancer worry. I would just like to know the truth of the situation on the ground and what it is we have or have not been doing thus far. I don't believe a war with Syria now is realistic, but taking the border situation more seriously, and forcing Syria to do the same, is potentially key to keeping Iraq going in the proper direction.
A border clash that led to the deaths of several Syrian soldiers doesn't even make al-Jazeera? I'm surprised that Syria didn't do more than file a diplomatic protest, if this incident actually occurred within its borders. OTOH, the rulers of Syria may have thought about this incident & decided not to make a big deal of it. Their concerns about the stability of their own regime combined with problems on their west in Lebanon may reduce desire to publicize problems in the eastern desert. If the event were viewed as a genuine incursion rather than an isolated incident, Syria could choose to make an issue of it, to encourage the political support of other Arab nations. With the subsequent ejection of some members of Saddam's family from Syria, perhaps the leaders are deciding that they don't want to directly confront the US on issues that may lead to their own downfall. An unrelated story, which could lead to intelligence work on our borders: http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/10/20/insurgency051020.html