Posted on 08/05/2006 2:54:05 PM PDT by Mr. Brightside
I thought Jordan sat out the '73 war, having learned from their mistake in the '67. In '67 the Jordanians saw Israeli aircraft, returning from their devastating strikes on the Egyptian air force, on their radar. The Egyptians told them they were Egyptian planes going to bomb Israel. Despite pleas from Israel to stay out of it, Jordan attacked Israel... and lost the West Bank and East Jerusalem for their stupidity.
==I thought Jordan sat out the '73 war
Not completely: The least enthusiastic participant in the October fighting was probably Jordan's King Hussein, who apparently had been kept uninformed of Egyptian and Syrian war plans. But Hussein did send two of his best units — the 40th and 60th Armored Brigades — to Syria. This force took positions in the southern sector, defending the main Amman-Damascus route and attacking Israeli positions along the Kuneitra-Sassa road on October 16. Three Jordanian artillery batteries also participated in the assault, carried out by nearly 100 tanks.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/73_War.html
At some point back then the Syrians sent armored tank columns toward Jordan to attack the King and Israel,at our request, sent a group of planes out to challenge the Syrians, who then turned around and went home.
==At some point back then the Syrians sent armored tank columns toward Jordan to attack the King and Israel,at our request, sent a group of planes out to challenge the Syrians, who then turned around and went home.
That was when the Syrians sent in tanks to assist the PLO (who just tried to assassinate the king and were trying to overthrow the Jordanian government in force).
As I recall, it didn't take many IAF planes to stop the Syrian armor. And Jordan would have fallen to the PLO/Assad push without the Israeli help.
True. All the IAF had to do was conduct a flyover and that sent the Syrian packing. The PLO/Syrians were looking for an easy victory. Not long after, the Jordanians were poised to defeat the PLO and then the Soviets and the US stepped in and rescued the PLO. Very sad. The PLO could have been destroyed once and for all right there and then.
Thanks for the education (and links!)
The Counterterrorism Blog seems a good site to follow the events in the war. Osama is pushing hard to stir up groups in Egypt and the Iranians are trying to join the Sunni and Shia factions to fight together. We tread a fine line in the quest to cripple both. They see the need to combine for action against us and Israel, as they are each taking heavy losses. Interesting times indeed.
So now it's CCCP .... command, communications, control, photoshop.
Of course that could be C3Pho as well ...
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