Perhaps Turkey, or even Iraq. If it’s that easy for all those terrorists to sneak into Iraq through Syria, I have to think it can’t be that hard to do the reverse.
Also of note is the lack of response from any of Syria’s Arab friends. The Arab League has said nothing. Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, etc...crickets chirping.
Assad now knows, if he didn’t already, that he’s on his own.
Frankly, this is the type of stuff that we should be doing more of. Having 160000 troops doing police work in villages and cities and fixing schools and manning checkpoints is largely a waste of time.
Missions like this that are low casualty, hig impact, great media and morale boosting, would engage the public more often and be more effective, or at the least should be done in conjunction with what we’re doing in Iraq.
If we know where Syria, Iran, Hezbollah, etc... have bases, missile bases, weapons depots, factories, plants, etc... they should be taken out at random and with consistency. We need to be more agressive and hopefully there’ll be more of this type of action in the future.
Maybe seeing the IDF go in an take acre of business will spur some of our SOF and AF guys to want ot show their stuff and get in on the action.
Ultimately, this "humanitarian garrison" of ours in Iraq is a solid base from which to observe, ears to the ground and listen to the footsteps of the enemy in the night.
The story breaks in conjunction with GWs address to the nation concerning Iraq and WOT. These things are usually coordinated. Note the cooperation of US military and AF ID codes. We have had planes flying over Iraq daily for well over 15 years.
Your point re. the Saudis etc is well taken. There is no love lost at present by Egypt, Jordan and the Saudis for Syria, since Assad started playing footsie with AquaVelvanijad. This may account for the crickets chirping.
I sure hope that you're right that we may begin making high impact surgical strikes in the near future. And I agree with your assessment of the impact of such strikes.
I can tell you that the Israelis have made enormous changes within the military establishment. They are not the same IDF that lurched through the last Hizbollah campaign.
Interestingly, they (the IDF) have had a surge in the number of Israelis who have signed up as career military, especially among the more religious Israelis, which is an interesting trend. This indicates an understanding, particularly among the Orthodox community of the dangers Israel is facing.
Additionally, many of this new influx have volunteered for Special Forces.
The chain of command has been totally retooled, training has been stepped up, training procedures have been corrected. The Israelis have not been messing around.
The smartest thing that they have done is to bring Barak in as Defense Minister. He's a schmuck politically, but he is enormously savvy militarily.
What our guys (in all services - but especially in SOF) have been accomplishing in the past 6 years of this WOT (mostly in the shadows) is historically astounding. Ops tempo's other forces couldn't imagine.
We've hit AQ sites throughout the ME, SE Asia and the HOA (often in places we supposedly aren't).
Lastly, it is never our SOF guys who don't want to "show their stuff" (as you put it). Talk to HQs.
Having 160000 troops doing police work in villages and cities and fixing schools and manning checkpoints is largely a waste of time.
You don't have a clue, with all due respect - Not a clue if that is your serious thought -
“lack of response from any of Syria’s Arab friends. The Arab League has said nothing. Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, etc”
That is because they all trust Israel with nukes more than they trust Iran or Syria with them. They know that Israel’s actions were in their best interest too.
That's great stuff if you ignore the cost of failure in Iraq. Old schoool counter-insurgency is working just fine, and will get those troops freed up sooner.
Yep, it could be amazing to a peasant when a thunder rings from the across the horizon.
Any one mention Saddam may have moved his cache to this resort?/s