IDF prepared for attack by Syria

[sabra]

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1153292032964&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

IDF prepared for attack by Syria

While Israel is not interested in opening a front against Syria, if President Bashar Assad decides to attack Israel, the IDF will respond harshly and with its full might, a high-raking IDF officer in the Northern Command told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.

"We are continuing with our message that we are not interested in fighting with Syria," the officer said, "But we are fully prepared for a Syrian attack, in the case of which we will strike back extremely hard."

The IDF officer said he believed Syria has been receiving the clear message Israel has been sending its way that Israel does not want to fight Syria. Whatever happened on border was completely depended on Assad, the officer said. "It is up to him, and at the moment we don't know what he plans to do."

He said that Saturday's IAF attack on a road that led from Syria into Lebanon near the border was meant to thwart attempts to smuggle weapons from Syria into Lebanon.

[Minstrel Boy]

1. Buzzing Assad's residence

sends something of a mixed message that they're "not interested in fighting with Syria."

http://www.forbes.com/entrepreneurs/feeds/ap/2006/06/28/ap2847940.html

[BooScout]

2. It won't be long now....

It seems they are bound and determined to take the entire world on.

[aquart]

4. Ever see a cornered kitten hiss and spit?

And make its fur all large? That's what Israel is doing. Tiny Israel is trying to look as difficult and dangerous as possible. Because it is surrounded by hundreds of millions of people who could simply march in and kill everyone.

Israel is a tiny, weak nation with indefensible borders. As you may have noticed by the bombs in Haifa.

What part of Syria or Iran could Israel attack and occupy? You all seem to think that's next. Tell me HOW. Because Israel needs every soldier to defend the porous borders of its narrow nation, where anyone can stand outside and rain fire in.

What's the population of Syria? Iran? Israel? Get a grip on reality.

[Minstrel Boy]

6. "Israel is a tiny, weak nation with indefensible borders"

Borders Israel has not only defended, but extended.

If Israel had only defended its mandated territory, it would still be there, and probably now among good neighbours and enjoying the good will of the world.

[pdurod1]

24. I think you're naive...

[AnOhioan]

9. I think YOU need a grip on reality

Israel has the strongest, best-equipped armed forces in the region, courtesy of the US taxpayer. Israel weak? Indefensible? Porous? Hardly. They are the big kid on the block and like to show everyone how tough they are. Olmert is a schoolyard bully, much like the chimp over here in the US.

[HereSince1628]

15. And of course Israel has nukes, and no one else in the neighborhood does.

It's difficult to not see Israel as having a well developed military compared to its neighbors.

[saigon68]

38. Maybe they will nuke a few " diaper" heads

Congressman John Cooksey of Monroe, an arch-conservative Republican, is planning to run against Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Democrat nearing the end of her first term. Cooksey made news last week for some bone-headed comments about airport security and racial profiling in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

"If I see someone comes in that's got a diaper on his head and a fan belt wrapped around the diaper on his head, that guy needs to be pulled over," Cooksey said during an interview with Louisiana Radio Network.

[jayfish]

16. Well, I Guess You've Put To Bed The Idea...

that all of the Arab world would raze Israel if it could. According to you they can and they haven't. :shrug:

Jay

[Threedifferentones]

29. A weak nation?

Get a grip on reality?

Israel is small, but it has far more firepower than any other nation in the region.

[mitchtv]

32. it's the water

Israel is engaging in Environmental Terrorism

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x62108

that's the reality, they will reap what they sow This kind of stuff can effect the neighbors who wish to remain neutral. This kind of thing, in my book, sacks any claims of rightousness. I tend to get upset when I see war on the non human environment.

[iconoclastic cat]

3. This will not end well. nt

[aquart]

5. What made you think it ever could?

[Dover]

7. Puhleeeeze! Israel is BEGGING for Syria to respond

And if they don't respond, Israel/U.S. will create a reason to attack them anyway.

[Marie26]

8. I don't think so.

Israel can't even win a fight against a militia in Lebanon - how are they going to win a battle against Lebanon, and Syria, and Gaza at the same time?

[Mudoria]

10. The same way..

they defeated Syria, Egypt and Jordan in '67 and '73?

[KingFlorez]

12. This is a different time

[Marie26]

13. If Isreal's military is so

great, why is it getting beat by Hizbollah right now? In the 1967 War, Israel beat all of those countries in six days; now they can't even stop Hiz. rockets after 3 weeks of bombing. If they were really planning on attacking Syria, why haven't they assembled more ground forces or made an attempt to hold territory in s. Lebanon? It just doesn't seem right. Maybe Israel is planning to attack Syria, but I'm just not seeing signs of it.

[hack89]

17. Different type of war ..

conventional vice guerrilla. Against the Syrian army they don't have to worry about civilian casualties and they will use all the force at their disposal. A good comparison was would be the US in Iraq - we dominated the conventional war but got bog down afterwards.

[Marie26]

34. Or Israel v. Lebanon

In 1982, Israel won the convential war against Lebanon easily, but then got bogged down in endless guerilla warfare & terrorist attacks by Lebanese militias. I think that's partially why they seem so reluctant to use ground troops now. It'd be like us heading into Vietnam again. Israel doesn't seem very good at handling guerillas - that's why it seems like managing Gaza & Hizbollah guerilla warfare, plus a conventional war w/Syria might be too much at once. Doesn't Isreal have a limited amount of troops? It'd seem like they'd need to be careful about starting different ground wars at once. I'm not a military expert at all, though. It's just my hunch on this.

[Igel]

27. Asymmetric conditions for

winning and defeat.

Hezbollah survival, ceasefire, prisoner exchange = Hezbollah win, Israeli loss.

Hezbollah's win is the most likely outcome; to win against Hezbollah requires luck, or speed, or the kind of fighting that's gone out of style. When Nasrallah declared "total war", he meant it, and was soundly applauded for his pride and dignity; if Israel even mouthed the words, Olmert would be up on charges in front of some international court. It's essentially banned.

Hezbollah doesn't have to fire a rocket across the border to win, a point sadly overlooked; killing Israelis is an ancillary goal to make the win not just a victory, but a glorious victory, showing that not only can Hezbollah stand up to the Zionist aggressor of contempt and source of all corruption, but also inflict damage to justify it's continued status as exalted defender of the one truth faith.

[w4rma]

11. You assume their leadership is sane enough to think that far ahead.

Or even has a grip on reality enough to understand the most probable outcomes.

[Marie26]

14. True that.

This conflict is so irrational already, I guess there's no predicting what they might do next.

[iconoclastic cat]

30. By pulling the US into it. nt.

[Marie26]

33. Seems like the other way around. nt

[iconoclastic cat]

36. Yep, it is starting to look that way. nt

[PCIntern]

18. Many on this thread and others

feel that Israel has used disproportionate force in the Lebanon nightmare now unfolding.

Guess what - if you want to see force, let the Syrian armor mass at the border- then you'll see the full extent of Israel's military strength. From a relativistic standpoint, the IDF has burped in Lebanon. I do recall that much was made of the Iraqi Army prior to 1991 and again in Gulf War 2...I'm not speaking to the morality or the reasonableness of either of those wars, but once the American military decides in really wants something, nothing in this world can stop it. Same is true for the IDF. And the Syrians know that all too well.

[pyro858]

Wonder if Bush and PNAC are the driving force here

we know the neo's want Iran and Syria bad. we also know they attacked Iraq knowing they were not a threat in the least. Takes a special kind of breed to kill people knowing they are no threat.

I wouldn't be surprised if the American Likudniks aren't working hand in hand with Israel. They have never swayed from the PNAC doctrine and i don't think they will.

[pyro858]

19. Wonder if Bush and PNAC are the driving force here

we know the neo's want Iran and Syria bad. we also know they attacked Iraq knowing they were not a threat in the least. Takes a special kind of breed to kill people knowing they are no threat.

I wouldn't be surprised if the American Likudniks aren't working hand in hand with Israel. They have never swayed from the PNAC doctrine and i don't think they will.

[PurityOfEssence]

20. Remember: the Poles attacked Germany first in 1939

Well, that would have been the story if Hitler had won, since victors write history.

A pretext was made for war by claiming that the Poles had attacked first, and the ruse even went so far as to have political prisoners' corpses put in uniform.

Just what the hell is going on here? Instinct tells me that Israel doesn't want to get into a syrious war here, but it's obvious that the PNAC boys and many people in Israel would just LOVE to beat the tar out of Syria. Perhaps these fantasists think there's a way to make it seem like Syria is a rampaging Islamist force and that ensuing actions are all its fault. That's just pure poppycock: to pin them with escalating and widening the current ugliness in the area won't work, since we started the whole thing by our little imperial foray into Iraq.

The IDF is a potent force, though, and it could certainly rain on Syria's parade in a big way...

Maybe movers and shakers in Israel are coming around to the PNAC's plan and see this as an opportunity to neutralize an old enemy. This would be delusional in the extreme, since nobody really knows what would happen should the Ba'ath party fall in Syria. Then again, extreme delusion seems to be the order of the day.

Whatever the "plan", the stark reality here seems to be that simplistic and ruthless personalities are operating in the realm of pretty much pure emotion, and that's never a good thing.

Israel is now so hated in the region that it's not even funny. Lebanon's government has flat-out dismissed Condi's duplicitous overtures and won't even meet with her.

Even so, it will get worse, much, much worse.

Somehow many Israelis think that this will be fairly quick, and that the withdrawal will set things back to some kind of "normal". This is nuts.

[Gully Foyle]

21. Screw it

Get it over with. Big massive war. Maybe get Pakistan and India blasting as well.
I'm tired of the anticipation.
Kill them all and let god sort them out.

[daleo]

35. God might decide to sort us all out

Especially if India and Pakistan get drawn in and nuclear weapons are used.

[pdurod1]

22. If Syria gets into it...

The US will respond, we still haven't responded to Hezbollah in regards to the 241 Marines that were sucker punched in 1983.

[IndianaGreen]

23. Yeah, and the Poles attacked that German radio station in 1939

Where have I seen this sort of propaganda before??????

[muryan]

25. probably somewhere here

justifying hezzbollahs actions against israel, like so many people are trying to do.

[IndianaGreen]

26. Collective punishment is a war crime, and I just saw Blair on TV

and he just wavered on his staunch support of Bush and Olmert's policies.

Do you want to end up with only Bush and his bible-thumping supporters as the only people in the world on your side? If so, continue to bomb Lebanon.

[Igel]

28. Communal punishment should also be a war crime. n/t

[Az_lefty]

31. This is exactly what bunnypants wants.

Him and his rapture ready buddies. This can be the only reason they keep putting off calling for a cease fire.

[TheLastMohican]

37. I can hardly believe that they are prepared

It is a bluff, they can't stop some ragtag missiles being fired from donkeys and lhamas. Can they stop the russian Iskander missile? This is not some 70s stuff but a brand new thing capable of lighting up an entire brigade.