U.S. General Puts Syria On Notice

[nolabels]

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/news/041804AP_nw_syria.html

U.S. General Puts Syria On Notice: Help, Or Risk Stability

April 18 (AP) — Syria needs to do more to stop foreign fighters from crossing into Iraq, the top U.S. military officer said Sunday after a border ambush left five Marines dead.

The U.S. effort to organize an international troop presence in Iraq suffered a setback when the new Spanish prime minister, fulfilling a campaign pledge, said he would withdraw the 1,300-member Spanish contingent in Iraq as soon as possible.

The White House said it expected the move and hoped for Spain's continued help in the fight against terrorism. Lawmakers voiced concern.

"The military situation can accept this, but it will put pressure on the other coalition nations that have joined in this, I'm sure," said Sen. John Warner, R-Va., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. "It's troublesome."

Military leaders and presidential advisers reaffirmed U.S. policy against negotiating with Iraqi insurgents who are holding Americans and they predicted stepped up attacks as the June 30 deadline for the transfer of power to Iraqis neared.
(snip)

on que, escalate when things are going badly

[KissMyAsscroft]

1. Just laying the groundwork for invading Syria.

nt

[IndianaGreen]

2. Invade Syria? Where are they going to get the troops for that?

Syria has missiles and WMDs, and Syria won't hesitate to use them!

Looks to me like we have several Freepers wearing General's stars on their lapels. How else can you explain such idiotic bluster?

[mmm]

4. They don't seem to think things thru very well, that is for sure

For some reason they seem keen on infuriating all of Islam.
Just because Bush doesn't have the details worked out for the invasion of Iran and Syria doesn't mean he won't proceed
with the Shock and Awe phase of liberation.
Nothing would surprise me.

[PurityOfEssence]

7. Rethink your "they"; think Israel

A large chunk of the IDF would happily oblige, although it would be madness of a sort that's hard to fathom. Remember Rand Beers' characterization of these mob: they'll let no facts dissuade them from their long-since determined path of action.

The only bright ray of hope about this administration is their incompetence. Many lives will be lost if something truly insane like this happens; Syria may have been weakened over the last few years and have equipment that's out of date, but it's not prostrate and disrupted like Iraq was after a decade of sanctions.

Ya just know they've been wanting to do this ever since taking Baghdad.

[Zhade]

13. If the IDF joins our forces, consider America doomed.

Every Arab nation would send waves of fighters after our soldiers. A true "clash of civilizations" would erupt.

I pray we never see such madness.

[dusty64]

19. Helps explain

why they purged the military and installed choices that follow their insane worldview. I think they may try to expand their "war" before they are thrown out of office knowing full well it will have to be continued under the next administration. They really don't care how many will die and it will be the perfect excuse to try and force Kerry to reinstate the draft they want so bad knowing that the shitstorm to follow will mean the end of the Democratic party as a political force.

[Peter1x9]

22. They will draft them.

Why else would they have the draft board all set up and ready?

[alittlelark]

3. My next-door-neighbor of 30 years is being looked into by the

(INSERT)....I think the guy is OK, even though his pesticides took out my hydrangias. He sometimes drinks too much and gets all whacko for 'liberation'.


A guy from the next town wants me to help kill him.

I am uh, not interested. The guy may be whacked, but when my home was invaded last year he came over, with his brothers and his guns.....and the intruder left.

I KNOW the intruder is still watching our house. We still see them occasionally.

[nolabels]

5. His name wasn't Tom, was it?

The crazy bug man Tom Delay worked with them darn pesticides, before getting a new job in congress. Extermination comes naturaly for some (when they are working around them fumes)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=410&forum=DCForumID61&archive=yes
Tom DeLay: Saddam must go


08/20/2002 - Updated 08:55 PM ET

By Kathy Kiely, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — A top House Republican leader plans to call Wednesday for the removal of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein by whatever means necessary.

"The question is not whether to go to war, for war already has been thrust upon us," House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas, will tell members of the Houston Forum, a non-partisan civic group, in a luncheon speech.

Excerpts of DeLay's speech were made available by his office Tuesday. In them, the No. 3 House Republican scoffs at the "feverish hand-wringing" over whether enough evidence exists to justify a strike against Saddam.

DeLay says the case against Saddam "is self-evident" and that the United States can stop the Iraqi dictator from peddling weapons of mass destruction to terrorists "only by taking them out of his hands." He rejects the diplomatic avenues being urged by U.S. allies. He says the nation must "seek a victory that cannot be secured at the bargaining table."
(snip)

[alittlelark]

10. Yeah, it was Tom

and the delay was in finding the corporately responsible corporations that could execute on schedule. We found them......but were unable to give more insight due to 'corporate loyalty)...but we call it sumptin' else!!!



WAQL MURT RULS!!!! I MEEN IT!!!!

[CHIMO]

6. Politicians

Should be in the drivers seat.

Everyone should go back and look at what Eisenhower had to say about things.

[DustMolecule]

8. Have some 'samples' to what you're thinking about

to point us tired/lazy folks in the right direction?

[CHIMO]

9. Just Google

You might like the exercise.

http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~hst306/documents/indust.html

Politicians have the power to make war, not the military.

Don't have samples but I think this one reference shows the direction for lazy. If you exercise you could become unlazy.

Good reading.

[DustMolecule]

11. Thank you for the link

I'm really 'not so lazy' (DU isn't a place for the lazy, as I'm sure you know)...links are nice though :-) .

[CHIMO]

14. Another

Link.

http://www.buzzflash.com/interviews/03/06/23_briody.html

There are many more but they are also expanding on the topic.

The essence of the topic though, is that politicians declare wars, generals implement them and people fight them.

[DustMolecule]

16. If you want to REALLY see/know something.....

watch this (hope you have broadband). The 'rest' of the world is waaaay 'ahead of the curve' vs. amurikans.....watch and BEGIN to understand. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3995.htm

[Zhade]

12. You've got to be kidding me.

Imperial America has the bulk of its military in Iraq right now.

Every country in the world - save one, perhaps - has a vested interest in making sure our military is utterly destroyed before the Empire attempts even one more invasion.

And they think Syria's going to HELP?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

[bluestateguy]

15. Syria in 2004: What Cambodia was to the Vietnam War in 1970

Remember that?

[Devils Advocate NZ]

17. Yet more lies by the US military!

The battle Saturday on the Syrian-Iraqi border, in an area that had seen little fighting previously, left at least 25 Iraqis dead.

Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the stability not only of Syria and Iraq, but also of the entire region is at stake.

"We know that the pathway into Iraq for many foreign fighters is through Syria. It's a fact. We know it. The Syrians know it," Myers told CNN's "Late Edition."

Wait a minute, if it left 25 IRAQIS dead, then what the hell is all this talk about FOREIGN fighters? It's just more BULLSHIT by the US military to cover up the fact that they are getting their arse kicked by "Iraqi insurgents".

In fact, I am pretty sure an earlier article about this same attack said that the battle was against 300 Shi'ite militia men from Falluja. In fact the article was posted here on DU in the last couple of days.

The US military is desperate - they are losing, and they know it.

[nolabels]

20. Don't worry , * co is even more desperate

I wouldn't think a lot of the ordinary soldiers are really all that blood thirsty. Some think the military is using both sets of boots in the rotation time to raise hell for political purposes (that would be a shame, lots of people being killed for *co's political purposes)

http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=4182

Stop the blood bath against the Iraqi people and the destruction of Iraqi towns
by Munir Chalabi, Iraqi activist working with Occupation Watch
April 17th, 2004

All indications show that what is going on in Iraq is a pre-planned attack from the coalition armies on Falluja, Sadr City, Shuhla, Adhamia, Kufa and other towns and cities in the centre and to the south, and was not a reaction to the mutilation of the four American security guards in Falluja or the speech of Mr. Maqtada Sadr, in which he stated his support for Hezbollah and Hamas.



What is happening now is the mass killing of civilians including men, women and children of all ages in several districts and towns, in which the American army has used a range of sophisticated weapons including cluster bombs, Apache helicopter gun ships, and F16 fighter jets.



These were co-ordinated attacks, which took place simultaneously while there were about 200,000 American soldiers on the ground in Iraq (135,000 of which have been around for a year, plus over 60,000 Marines coming in to replace them). This is in addition to 35,000 from the other countries of the coalition including British, Italian, Spanish, etc., and around 40,000 foreign mercenaries brought in from all over the world, who have been employed by the Pentagon and American companies under the name of “security guards” (which are now incidentally, being investigated by a Senate committee).
(snip)
(snip)
This plan has faced widespread opposition within all sectors of Iraqi society. It is becoming apparent to everybody that this is no more than a “new face for the occupation”. The resistance to this new American strategy has come from different patriotic and religious parties, who have put forward real democratic plans, based on free elections of a newly “elected” parliament to take over from the occupying forces instead of the so-called “Provisional Council” that the occupiers would prefer.



In order for the new American policy to succeed, it will be necessary for them to “smash” all the oppositional parties and movements opposed to such plans.
(snip)

[Zynx]

18. We are in no position to fight Syria.

Where do we get the troops and how do we safely base them in Iraq to go after Syria. If I was in any leadership position in Syria, I would reccomend being tough with the US now because the US can't do a damn thing.

[Jacobin]

21. Um, the occupying forces have the responsibility to secure

the borders of a country they occupy.

It ain't Syria's obligation. It's the nutjob who's threatening Syria's job.