More on Syria Raid
More on the US raid on a house in Syria:
The LAT wonders if the attack will derail US-Syrian steps toward rapprochement.
Syrian officials are complaining that the raid, which left 8 Syrians dead, was 'irrational' and contravened international law. Other Syrian denunciations are given in Arabic by al-Sharq al-Awsat.
Farmhouse raided in Abu Kamal village, courtesy Syria-news.com
Joshua Landis at Syria Comment carries an account from a physician of the killed and wounded that casts doubt on the US military story that the workers killed were part of a logistics operation in support of fundamentalist vigilantes on their way to Iraq.
Landis speculates that Bushco. figures that it would get a lame duck freebie in attacking Syria now, on the brink of an Obama administration.
It seems to me more likely that the attack was aimed at making sure that what the administration calls "al-Qaeda in Iraq" did not have the means to mount a spectacular bombing or assassination campaign that would hurt McCain and help Obama. I was told by NGOs when I was in Amman last summer that the Bush administration had for the first time pledged money to help Iraqi refugees, and that US officials had admitted to them that the reason was that the administration wanted the refugee crisis kept off the front pages this fall. Scott McClellan has already told us that the Bushies are in campaign mode 24/7. I'd say that every single thing they are doing, whether raiding Pakistan or raiding Syria, is intended in some way to help the Republican Party in the election, in addition to whatever local military goal the action had.
Update: Helena Cobban argues that a) it is past time for an October surprise to work and b) that the US public would not put up with being transparently manipulated, given what they've been through with Bush/Cheney.
Aljazeera English reports on the US raid into Syria.
posted by Juan Cole @ 10/27/2008 01:15:00 AM
|
Facebook
11 Comments:
are we still supposed to give BushCo benefit of the doubt with respect to the notion that there even was a legitimate military objective?
I just can not imagine this to myself. So they fly helicpters into a village and shoot at people and they say well it was terrorists and wait they were 7 not 8, as if that made a difference. The word barbaric springs to mind.
A Syrian.
It seems entirely likely that Bushco are trying to generate a crisis that will be on the front pages so that they can distract the narrative from the economy. If the economy is the lead story, the GOP loses big. If security and the GWOT is at the top of the page then things might be closer (close enough that the purging of voter roles in places like Georgia would have their intended effect).
If they intended this raid to help McCain, it seems like it backfired to me. I suspect rather that the commander over in Anbar province just wanted to take some action on his own to improve his troops' morale and boost his own cachet. I would bet this was not cleared at the highest level. The military press office seemed to be caught by surprise.
It sure looks like an October surprise to me. Correction: the beginning of an October surprise. The question is how fast the consequences are escalated. I expect a lot more in the next few days, but I would love to be disappointed.
The operation is too small to be useful for US consumption.
The Americans are concerned about the improving relationship between Syria and Iraq. An Iraqi spokesman who works closely with the USA has already angered the Syrians by saying that the attacked area is a staging post for terrorist attacks into Iraq (although not explicitly saying that the victims were terrorists.)
They can say that bin Laden was orchestrating attacks from within the Syrian border.
bin Laden's body has been in a cryogenics chamber for the last 7 years. They can now defrost it, claim bin Laden was captured in the raid, and pretend the body is fresh dead meat.
Royal gift?
One possible explanation is that this strike is kind of royal gift from the neocons to their best friends.
From Sarah Palin's prospective, such a gift could maker sense even without any particular political benefit.
Syria hits out at 'terrorist' US
Syria's foreign minister has accused the US of an act of "criminal and terrorist aggression" over what it says was a helicopter raid on its territory.
I cannot disagree. Can you?
I am a US soldier with two tours in Iraq, so I have been there, done that. Soldiers don't do raids or kill innocent people for political purposes!!
Everyone thinks this was a conspiracy? Nobody here stopped to consider that maybe, just maybe, there was a bona fide terrorist target on the Syrian side? All of you seem to trust the Syrian state-controlled media over the United States government! Do you really think no terrorists cross into Iraq from Syria?
Ok, I get this much - you don't trust Bush. But Bush didn't do this raid. I'm certain he didn't plan it either. US soldiers carried it out (if it did indeed happen - which isn't a certainty), and it was planned by officers on the ground. If Bush was involved at all, it was only to give a yes/no to the operation, or he gave general guidance to the higher commanders on the ground under which circumstances they can cross the border.
This was near a particulary volatile crossing point near Qaim. Let's wait for the facts to come in (other than from Syria) before pronouncing judgements.
US soldiers carried it out... and it was planned by officers on the ground.
That makes it OK?! That makes it worse! Soldiers on the ground don't care about killing people in one country or another. Are you getting us ready for cross-border assassinations in Iran? "Planned by officers on the ground?"
I don't believe the attack on Syria was planned by officers on the ground. It was planned by Neocons in Washington DC. Enemies of the people.
The enemies we have in Iraq and Syria are nothing compared to the enemies we have in Washington DC in terms of the damage they can and have leveled against us.
They have killed 4188 soldiers on the ground and wounded 30634 in their aggression war against and occupation of Iraq.
Post a Comment
<< Home