Former Ambassador Dan Simpson declared that the US has invaded Syria in an article he wrote for the Toledo Blade on October 19, 2005.
Is this the Iraq war’s equivalent of actions in Cambodia during the Vietnam war?
Simpson does not provide details. It had been widely reported on October 14, 2005 that coalition troops had clashed with Syrians on the border in order to stem the flow of possible insurgents from the country, but those reports do not include movements into Syria itself. Yet, Simpson’s words are definitive.
more below…
An unknown number of Syrians are acknowledged to have been killed; the number of Americans – if any – who have died so far has not yet been revealed by the U.S. sources, who, by the way, insist on remaining faceless and nameless.
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On the U.S. side, no declaration of war preceded the invasion of Syria, in spite of the requirements of the War Powers Act of 1973. There is no indication that Congress was involved in the decision to go in. If members were briefed, none of them has chosen to share that important information with the American people.
Syria is facing increasing pressure from the US and the UN in advance of a UN report about the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. Syrian government officials have denied any involvement in the murder. Possible sanctions are being discussed in order to further isolate the country and, on Wednesday, Condoleezza Rice said the US has not ruled out military action against Syria.
Considering the fact that this so-called US invasion of Syria has not been reported by the Syrian government or members of congress, it’s quite likely that Ambassador Simpson may be making more of the border clashes than is necessary. However, it’s no secret that the US wants regime change in Syria and that it has constantly complained about Assad’s inability to stem the flow of insurgents into Iraq from his country.
If the US does invade Syria or if the UN report on the assassination fingers Assad, which is reportedly a tough case to prove, the future of Syria is very uncertain as it is quite possible that Assad would be replaced by a hard-liner who will be even less cooperative than Assad has been. That could throw the country into unpredictable chaos, further destabilizing the already fragile situation in the Middle East.
Update [2005-10-20 23:15:33 by catnip]:: The UN report on the assassination of Rafik al-Hariri has been released and implicates “senior Syrian and Lebanese officials” while faulting the Syrian government for not cooperating fully with the investigation and charging that the Syrian Foreign Minister actually misled investigators.
The Bush administration said it would not immediately comment. “We intend to read and study it tonight very carefully and decide tomorrow in consultations with other interested governments what the next steps will be,” said U.N. Ambassador John R. Bolton. Diplomats expect the report to lead the Security Council to consider action, however.
Read more here on WaPo’s site.
I’d heard about this too… I’m thinking before yesterday, maybe the article in the Toledo paper was a pick up? I totally believe this to be true. The US is pushing for an open war with Syria under the guise of them “helping the insurgency”… since there are no journalists there to report it the US can just deny that they crossed the border into Syria… classic ploy actually. Unfortunately for us all a deadly one.
If they take on Syria I can’t imagine what they hope to accomplish.. like Iran would be scared of that move? My god they’d chomp at the bit… the entire US military on their door step with combat fatigue and disgruntled citizens at home? The whole world against the US again? Man, not a good move at all in my book, but then again, what do I know, I’m just a foreigner 🙂
since there are no journalists there to report it the US can just deny that they crossed the border into Syria
Good point. I don’t know what kind of access the press might have from within Syria. I should check.
Dahr Jamail should know something about it. (I’m on dial up now, so can’t go and look.)
You’re on top of this stuff!
My thoughts too, were why hasn’t Syria released some sort of statement about this. Is there any reason that Syria would not want knowledge of the conflict out in the open?
And if the US is truly fighting in another country, well … what does that mean in terms of the UN or international courts etc, not to mention Congress etc.
All three are superfluous with this administration.
Syria might rightly reason that if they called attention to this that it would force the US to go “overt” with their campaign against Syria, and going overt would mean escalation.
We don’t have the resources to escalate by much. We could bomb, but that’s about it unless we want to withdraw substantial forces from Iraq, which would be crazy even by Rumsfeldian standards.
Syria would have a lot to gain by going public. Aside from the international opprobrium, dontcha think practically everyone in the US aside from the wingnut bitter-enders would have an absolute freaking cow? The majority of the public knows were doing poorly in Iraq and wants us to get out. War Number Three would not do well for Dubya, and Republican congresscritters looking forward to tough races in 2006 would be less than thrilled.
I’d liketo think that the specter of “international opprobrium” might have a restraining effect on the aggressive insanity of the neocons, but, unfortunately, it seems there’s clear evidence to the contrary.
While I’m no defender of the tyrannical practices of the Syrian regime, I do believe thesyrian government is tryingdesperately to reach some sort of deal with the Bush regime to prevent overt military intervention, but the US is simply not listening to them or cooperating in any way.
If the Syrians do decide to go public about this, I think it will onlybe after they fully realize that the US has already decided to take some military action and that nothing will deter them, (they surely remember the run-up to Iraq, afer all).
Those etc’s have a way of piling up, don’t they?
They certainly do…
Oh Hell, this is just like Cambodia! It has been going on for about a year to a year and a half now. Is it oa any suprise to you all that this administration would do such a thing!!?? They have been out after Syria from the get go.
I rather think this is all hopeles until we stop this group of ppl [this administration] from their existance…First pat Lang and his write up this morning in the front page and now this. Is it groundhog day?
So the Syrian people can enjoy the same benefits as the citizens of Afghanistan and Iraq.
Someone needs to invent a vaccine for that disease.
I’d like to see some bio-engineer create something that I would call the “Pinnochio Gene”. This gene could be injected into every government official, religious cleric, law enforcement official, and in general into anyone who, by virtue of his job, is empowered with some authority over others.
And, obviously, given the name of this gene, every time these characters lied, their nose would grow larger.
Just imagine the scene on the Senate floor a week or two after the introduction of this gene; Senators dodging the dangerous tips of their colleagues’ enlarged probisci every time they turned around.
Imagine the scene on the cablenews media pundit show sets. Matthews and Miller and Mitchell and Russert and their ilk would need “appliances” to prop up their schnozzes just to keep their heads vertical for the cameras.
(I think I might have spun off into wackyland with this, but it was great fun.)
You have a very active imagination! lol
Yeah, the US spreads “democracy” the way crack whores spread stds.
“Ya can’t indict me! I’m a war president and there’s wars to be had.”
I wish the crocodile hunter would take these neocons out and use them as bait! Crocks love chicken…
You’d think Al-Jazeera would be all over this. I’m going to pop over and see what I can find.
It’s interesting to note that CNN’s TV coverage this morning of the release of the UN report on the assassination only includes that “high-ranking Syrian officials” have been implicated. Nothing about the Lebanese.
Futher to my last post, here are the NYT and WaPo headlines:
WaPo: UN Sees Syrian Involvement in Hariri’s Death
NYT: Top Syrian Seen as Prime Suspect in Assassination
The Associated Press, on the other hand, has this headline: U.N.: Syria, Lebanon Involved in Slaying