A Warning Syria's President Assad Must Heed -James Hider
[A] U.S. airborne raid into Syrian territory marks the culmination of years of frustration with Damascus' reluctance to police its own border with Iraq, the main point of entry for foreign jihadists.
The Sukkariyeh Farm, which U.S. forces raided, is just over the border from the
Iraqi city of al-Qaim, which, since 2003, has been a key funneling point for jihadists entering Iraq.
Syria is a linchpin in the region, providing a link between Tehran and the Lebanese militia organisation Hezbollah. While it is a secular regime, Syria has allowed extreme Islamist groups to operate from its territory, using them both as an internal political pressure valve and to tie down US forces inside Iraq.
A raid into sovereign territory would have needed high-level U.S. clearance and may have been intended as a warning to Syria that it is not inviolate and must choose carefully whom it supports.
(Times-UK)
[A] U.S. airborne raid into Syrian territory marks the culmination of years of frustration with Damascus' reluctance to police its own border with Iraq, the main point of entry for foreign jihadists.
The Sukkariyeh Farm, which U.S. forces raided, is just over the border from the
Iraqi city of al-Qaim, which, since 2003, has been a key funneling point for jihadists entering Iraq.Syria is a linchpin in the region, providing a link between Tehran and the Lebanese militia organisation Hezbollah. While it is a secular regime, Syria has allowed extreme Islamist groups to operate from its territory, using them both as an internal political pressure valve and to tie down US forces inside Iraq.
A raid into sovereign territory would have needed high-level U.S. clearance and may have been intended as a warning to Syria that it is not inviolate and must choose carefully whom it supports.
(Times-UK)
3 comments:
Many find the timing of this attack, after all this time, as suspicious. Is it to goad Syria into destabilizing the situation in a bid to help McCain? Who can say. George Bush and Company certainly aren't above putting our soldiers in harm's way for their own purposes. Is a McCain victory the only way for Bush to save any face? Possibly, but it would not save much.
That would be a more compelling thesis if the story had some traction in the press.
More likely the military has been asking for this for some time...
It may prove to have some traction, I just started reading about it a couple of days ago. I am quite sure the military has been asking for this for some time---years in fact---so again we do have to wonder about the timing.
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