[Squantos]

Draw a line from Minot to Barksdale on the map and keep going south.....does it extend too or cross Venezuela ?

[Smokin' Joe]

Barksdale is a lot closer than Minot. Wherever they were being prepositioned for was closer to Louisiana (as the crow flies, so to speak) than Minot.

Someone mentioned Israel's Syria raid as well, and there might have been a wee bit of a retaliatory deterrent there as well.

Who was rattling what saber on the 29th of August, when this happened?

(Of course, deterrents aren't worth squat if no one knows about them...so I reckon, even the apparent 'leak' was intentional, too.)

From the article: No acknowledgment was made until service members leaked the story to the Military Times, which published a brief account Sept. 5.

Hmmmm. They would know better, I think, unless it was intentional all the way.

(Where did the "I can neither confirm nor deny..." bit go all of a sudden?)

It will be interesting to see where the officer 'relieved of his command' ends up.