IAF strikes Beruit airport

[jhp]

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3274810,00.html

Reports coming in about IAF striking Beruit airport, if this is confirmed this is another sizable escalation. I think this article ought to be pinned.

[trillabodilla]

"Pray for the Peace of Israel and Jerusalem"

Amen
Prayer bump

[ASA Vet]

The reserves should be filling up their units soon. Then you'll see some "serious."

[Diogenesis]

=========== Beirut Lebanon ===========

In Beirut Lebanon, at the Rafik Hariri International Airport.

[kabar]

KSA relies on USA for protection; don't be fooled by propaganda targeted for domestic consumption.

LOL. If we invade them, I would think that domestic opinion, including the Royal family, would not approve of such an action. Our "protection" would be meaningless.

[ReignOfError]

Her name is KC, short for "Killer Chick" ... she's a looker too.

Ah, now I remember. I had a thing for Lt. "Thumper" (pilots were identified only by call sign), the F-18 pilot. KC was a close second.

I think we're missing out on a psychologically effective angle here. "We're Americans. Our women will kick your ass so far into the sand you'll have to dig for an hour to see daylight. Biyatch."

That's no great surprise to those of us who were raised by steel magnolias (defined as someone strong enough to tell you to go to hell, but sweet enough to make you look forward to the trip), but it'd make a dent on the dipshits who are accustomed to treating women as burqua-clad chattels. Payback's a bitch. At least they'll find the flight suits with O2 masks appropriately modest right up until they get blown to bits.

[sdk7x7]

Gives new meaning to "terminal"...

[Braak]

If I may, here's the likely scenario I see happening as of now:

1. Israel's mobilizing, and if this doesn't have at least Syria massing on the Golan to save their client's in Hizbullah, then I will be surprised. I think that's going to end very badly for the Syrians. Bashir's been embarassed twice by the IAF. He's probably thinking with something other than his brain. This time, there will be no Soviet paratroopers astride the Dawa-Damascus road..take your own inferances here.

2. Iran is going to cause a lot of trouble short of war. I don't know about the Iranians invading Iraq. They know in a full-up conventional conflict, they will lose. But, they can start another tanker war with an eye to running up gas prices. We'll have to respond to that. So, yeah, we'll be bombing the hell out of them there.

3. North Korea might just come south. KJI is not a good calculator of odds as evidenced by his actions with the missile tests. In short, KJI will figure with US forces even more busy in the Mid-East, we will not be ready to intervene in Korea. It will be a mistake. And frankly, the ROK army can handle it with US air support. Chinese intervention is a small possibility. I don't think they will. NK is too loose a cannon. The PRC has too many economic links with BOTH Koreas. And, a move against Taiwan would make a hypothetical Sea Lion look like a dog-and-pony show gone wrong. Another 10-15 years, not so. But now, timing is bad.

4. Gas is going to go up, way up. Personally, I think this is the point of the whole exercise. I hope folks in the Pentagon are dusting off contingency plans for Korea and possibly Venezuela. With things getting this nuts, we cannot afford to have someone playing Petro-terrorism in this hemisphere.

Discuss?

[Cyclopean Squid]

The space of time from the destruction of Carthage to the Fall of Rome was about 600 years. I'm not sure how much correlation there was.

[kimmie7]

[alarm rider]

Interesting observations.

[Jack Black]

Aren't those black smoke clouds from multiple successive Israeli bombs detonating on the runways? They are aways apart because airports are big -- runways are miles long and the Beirut Airport had three criss-crossing each other?

[Dog]

Found this courtesy of freeper Mozart Lover.

Per CNN:

US Navy Moves Small Ship Out Of Israeli Harbor -CNN

NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- The U.S. Navy has moved one of its ships out of Israel's port of Haifa because of the country's rapidly escalating conflict with guerrillas in Lebanon, Cable News Network reported Thursday. According to CNN, the small U.S. Navy vessel, called Apache, was ordered by the Navy to leave Haifa because the Navy didn't want the unarmed ship to be in harm's way. CNN said the ship, which has mainly a civilian crew, was on an exercise with the Israeli navy practicing diving and towing services. CNN said Haifa, which is 20 miles south of the Lebanese border, is considered under possible threat from rockets fired by Hezbollah fighters.

IMHO someone in the US government has just made the judgment that there will be further escalation.

[dhorowitz3]

UN, EU, Norway, France, Italy, and Russia all cry about the terrorists but have nothing to say about the 100 unprovoked Israeli casualties. link

[Braak]

Thanks,
It's my first FR anlysis piece. Nice to see the History BA gets some use.

My big question is simple? Why is Iran dumb enough to think that by taking the Israelis Hizbullah kidnapped they won't be party to the conflict? Something tells me they're trying to pull what Hitler did before he invaded Poland, by using SS men in Polish uniforms and dead Concentration Camp inmates in the same uniforms to make it look like the Poles had invaded Germany. If so, it's even clumsier than that.

[kimmie7]

Yes, they are. But the "arrow" was so pronounced that I just had to comment on it.

[Braak]

Smells that way. Wonder if AMARC got a call in case the Israelis buy up some of the older airframes as replacements?

[alarm rider]

I think Iran wants to be party to the conflict.

At this point, I am not sure how much this will escalate. If conventional wisdom is to be believed, the head nutwad in charge of Iran has some deeply strange agenda items. So, what are we calling this conflict?

[elli1]

LOL at myself.

[Braak]

Well,
Iran has lost it. Don't think they will invade Iraq. That would be national suicide (then again, if Iran's willing to get involved this early...no telling).

As for what to call it: Arab-Israeli round 5 till we get into it...or KJI loses it and moves south. Then...World War III.

[alarm rider]

Interesting. One wonders if the head nutwad in charge of Iran is weighing his military hardware against that of Israel.

Still, unless the IDF and air assets take out a large part of Syria, I don't see this going far.

You are right, if KJI moves South, then all bets are off. It could well be 1939.