Jezebelle wrote:
I don't see the point in engaging Syria. They have no military to speak of. Syria is the bully's buddy who
stands around egging on the big boys. Assad is a pussy. If Israel is going to escalate this, their business is
in Teheran.
Iran's either gotten lucky here, or else made an astute assessment and acted on it.
As late as yesterday, I agreed completely with your position.
The use of C802's to attack Israel's radar picket forced me to reconsider that assessment.
At this point in time, utilizing any OOB or TOE for Syria, other than that used for Iran, ignores demonstrated reality.
Yes, it is unlikely that Iran and Syria now perfectly match in military capability, but that is not the question. For any given operation, you have to plan for the worst possible condition set. If Iran transferred "Silkworm" era missiles (Note to all, this is the last time I will enquote or qualify use of the term Silkworm, henceforth it will be used to indicate that Iran, and now Syria too, use Silkworn era cruise missiles, because they do) to Syria, you cannot rule out the shipment of any weapon system.
Iran and Syria constitute a full military and political alliance, in practice as demonstrated Friday, and in treaty, as signed within the last couple months.
I strongly suspect that Israel and western powers are coming to terms with the new calculus, even as I type this, in a process likely to be ongoing for weeks, if not months. This will force all assumptions to be re-assessed, resulting in a longer decision making process on nearly every political and military question.
Very astute, but those missiles came frim Iran. Syria is a client-state of Iran and Hezbollah is her proxy, I guess the Iranians are somewhat nibys - "Not in my backyard," I say take it to his back yar - better yetm his front yard.
Those were Iranian missile.