IAF foils rocket transports from Syria

Ynet ^ | 07/18/06 | Hanan Greenberg

[Ben Mugged]

The mafia does the same thing in America. Does that make them harmless traders?

[Joan Kerrey]

Hezbollah maintains its headquarters in Damascus

Perhaps a signal to Syria is to destroy Hesbollah's hdqtrs there. They might get the message without suffering any direct damage.

[Ben Mugged]

Ten to One they'd back off after screaming their heads off.

I'll take that bet. They have no intent to surrender to Israel and lose face. They possess WMDs and they will use them, either on Israel or, if capable, on the United States. Hezbolla takes their orders not from Syria, but from Iran and their nutty leader truly believes his mission on earth is to trigger the "end of days" scenario signaling the return of the 12th iman. He believes war with the United States is not only inevitable but highly desirable. He doesn't believe Iran can win such a war, but he does believe islam can.

[NicknamedBob]

"Now is the time to confront Syria directly. A few well placed powerful bombs should do the trick."

This may be just a trifle simplistic. Right now, the matter is Israel's call, and I think they are familiar with the threat assessment.

And right now, many possible combatants are sitting it out. I consider it inadvisable to make their bad choice easy for them.

As long as Syria is only a supply point, and not directly engaged, it is best to leave it that way. If Israel can obliterate Hezbollah without pushing Syria into action, that would be the best solution. They would have the entire country of Lebanon as a buffer zone, and the Lebanese could get back to a relative peace and prosperity.

[BOBWADE]

ping

[daku]

just sieze the trucks, point munitions back in the general direction from where they came, and fire

[TheRightGuy]

20mm-diameter rockets

Hill, I've shot off bottle rockets bigger'n that

[Schoenstatter]

Probably 20 centimeters; otherwise, they would be raining "cigar rockets" down on Israel.

Now that was hilarious. You had me laughing so hard I literally had to be picked up off the floor. My gut actually hurts. The mental picture you painted was perfect. 20mm “cigar rockets” i.e. firecrackers falling out of the sky – If the current situation weren’t so serious, I’d still be laughing. Thanks for the humor!!!

[AndrewB]

Actually they're down to a bow and arrow.

[Southack]

"The mafia does the same thing in America. Does that make them harmless traders?"

Syria isn't harmless, that's not my point.

On the other hand, the documents that we captured in Zarqawi's safe house in Iraq outlined Al Qaeda's plans to trick the U.S. into going to war with Iran and/or Syria...because, the documents said, Al Qaeda in Iraq would be stronger with the U.S. distracted by a major regional war outside of Iraq.

These plans included leaving dead Iranians at the scene of horrible raids in Iraq, among other trickery...the intent being to get Iran or Syria blamed for something.

It's not too difficult to speculate that Al Qaeda wants Hezbollah to do the same thing to Israel.

But it won't happen. Israel isn't going to war against Syria or Iran, and Syria/Iran aren't going to do anything except play nice while U.S. armor is on their borders...try as Al Qaeda and Hezbollah will though to stir things up and incite a larger war (much like trying to get Sunnis and Shi'ia fighting each other inside Iraq, and again like trying to trick India into fighting Pakistan).

These tricks will fool a few amatuer minds in theatre, but they won't fool Assad, Ahmadinejad, or Olmert. They certainly won't fool the U.S.

Nope. This is a fight solely between Israel and Hezbollah, and we all know how that will turn out (which is why the Jew-hating Left is screaming for an immediate "ceasefire").

[HeartlandOfAmerica]

Syria was continuing to smuggle arms into Lebanon to rearm the group,

Well, THIS is something that the Leb army COULD prevent and are obviously not. They should have closed their borders or at least search every vehicle coming into the country.

Getting tired of hearing how weak the Lebanese Army is and they can't do anything at all, so they let 8,000+ armed terrorists, with 13,000 missiles, being financed to the tune of 20mil+ per MONTH into the south to threaten another country.

Nothing but an excuse to do nothing.

[Snickersnee]

They _are_ 20mm in diameter -- but they're 20 m long. And 3-staged.

[Marine_Uncle]

"Nope. This is a fight solely between Israel and Hezbollah, and we all know how that will turn out (which is why the Jew-hating Left is screaming for an immediate "ceasefire").
I agree in full. The US for one is not going to be dragged into any conflict in this area. If it can at all help it. And that may include if any of our Naval ships where to received pop shots from any goon on the shoreline in the next few days.

[M. Espinola]

Bravo, great job which will saves lives.

[Dave Elias]

"Best to wipe out Hezbollah in Lebanon."

Yeah right!

Israel couldn't achieve this in 18 years of boots on the ground in Lebanon. What makes you think they can do in two weeks of air-strikes?

[tyrem1166]

Thanks for that post. That's what we need: facts.

[tyrem1166]

I plead ignorance of fact. Your point, therefore, I will seriously consider.

[freedumb2003]

That supposed 72-hour ultimatum warning of "disastrous consequences" to Syria expired about 12 hours ago; no disaster yet...

It was 72 BUSINESS hours.

[Prost1]

Maybe they did not try before.

There are several ways of accomplishing this goal.

The Roman way is to destroy all life support systems so that the people have to evacuate.

It is possible to eliminate Hezbollah if one has the courage of their convictions.

[Krodg]

Who or what is Ynet and why should they be believed?