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US forces have invaded Syria

Posted By: gt on 2005-10-24
In Reply to:

New War?
U.S. forces have invaded Syria
by Dan Simpson
(Member of the editorial boards of The [Toledo] Blade and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)



AS I suspected six months ago, and U.S. military and Bush Administration civilian officials confirmed, U.S. forces have invaded Syria and engaged in combat with Syrian forces.


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.


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.


Presumably, the Bush Administration's intention is simply to add any casualties of the Syrian conflict to those of the war in Iraq, which now stand at 1,970. The financial cost of expanding the war to Syria would also presumably be added to the cost of the Iraq war, now estimated at $201 billion.


Is there any advantage at all to the United States, or to Israel, in replicating Iraq in Syria? For that is what is at stake. Syria in its political, ethnic, and religious structure is very similar to Iraq. Iraq, prior to the U.S. bust-up, was ruled by a Sunni minority, with a Shiite majority and Kurdish and Christian minorities.


Syria is ruled by an Alawite minority, with a Sunni majority and Kurdish and Christian minorities. That is the structure, not unlike many states in the Middle East, that the Bush Administration is in the process of hacking away at.


What needs to be done now is for the Congress, and through them, the American people, the United Nations, and America's allies, the ones who are left, to have the opportunity to express their thoughts on America's expanding the Iraq war to Syria. A decision to invade Syria is not a decision for Mr. Bush, heading a beleaguered administration, to make for us on his own.

--Toledo Blade, October 19, 2005
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http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051019/OPINION04/510190380/-1/OPINION



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Hey, how about Somalia or perhaps Syria.
c
If this is true...Obama is no better than Pelosi when she went to Syria...sm


http://washtimes.com/news/2008/oct/10/obama-sought-to-sway-iraqis-on-bush-deal/
We put our own forces through it all the time...
...and they get paid a lot less than $50K.


If Katrina was a clue, I would say probably UN forces.sm
In addition to the Blackwater security and Israelis, armed Mexican soldiers entered the US for the first time since 1800s to supposedly provide aid. Possibly conditioning Americans to the perception that foreign troops on US soil policing US citizens in times of emergency is normal. I know they train here on our military bases because I have met some in Colorado, mainly Romanians.

The Army Times reported that hurricane survivors who wouldn't leave New Orleans were to be treated as insurgents and that combat operations to eliminate them were undertaken. This is where the so-called 'relief' effort was directed towards - treating American citizens like terrorists and hunting them down simply for wanting to stay in their own homes. And once they were caught, FEMA treated evacuees as internees, registering them and giving them ID cards, preventing them from leaving the internment camps.


It would seem to me that when two neighboring states governors join forces
and declare a state of emergency, that the President would have to pay attention.  It's lunacy for him not to.  Yes, I totally agree with you in that our borders must become better secured and that's why I posted the petition.  If you want to see more about illegal immigration also visit www.numbersusa.com
And we invaded and occupied Iraq....WHY???????

WMD! Yeah, that's it.  Ooops.. No.. that wasn't it.


So we can achieve our very realistic goals of spreading freedom and create a democracy that respects human rights! Uh...nnnnnnnnnnnnnnope.  Oooopss, we can't do that either, just figured out they aren't all that realistic.


Okay.  Got it!  To create "some form of Islamic republic" for the Iraqi people. Yeah.  THAT'S the ticket!  Dang, they're lucky we're there!!!


I, for one, am certainly relieved that all our soldiers and innocent Iraqis died and continue to die for such a good cause ... and... except... but... uh.. EXACTLY WHY DID WE INVADE, DECLARE WAR ON, AND OCCUPY IRAQ AGAIN?


I can totally understand why Cindy Sheehan put herself in Crawford.  I'm just at an increasing loss to be able to understand why Bush put America in Iraq.









Boston.com

"







US scales back expectations on gains during Iraq transition


Officials now say goals unrealistic



WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is significantly lowering expectations of what can be achieved in Iraq, recognizing that the United States will have to settle for far less progress than originally envisioned during the transition due to end in four months, according to US officials in Washington and Baghdad.


The United States no longer expects to see a model new democracy, a self-supporting oil industry, or a society where the majority of people are free from serious security or economic challenges, US officials say.


''What we expected to achieve was never realistic given the timetable or what unfolded on the ground," said a senior official involved in policy since the 2003 invasion. ''We are in a process of absorbing the factors of the situation we're in and shedding the unreality that dominated at the beginning."


Administration officials still emphasize how much they have achieved despite the postwar chaos and escalating insurgency. ''Iraqis are taking control of their country, building a free nation that can govern itself, sustain itself, and defend itself. And we're helping Iraqis succeed," President Bush said yesterday in his radio address.


Iraqi officials yesterday struggled to agree on a draft constitution by tomorrow's deadline so the document can be submitted to a vote in October. The political transition would be completed in December by elections for a permanent government.


But the realities of daily life are a constant reminder of how initial US ambitions have not been fulfilled in ways that Americans and Iraqis once anticipated. Many of Baghdad's 6 million people go without electricity for days in 120-degree heat. Parents fearful of kidnapping are keeping children indoors.


Barbers post signs saying they do not shave men, after months of barbers being killed by religious extremists. Ethnic or religious-based militias police the northern and southern portions of Iraq. Analysts estimate that in the whole of Iraq, unemployment is 50 percent to 65 percent.


US officials say no turning point forced a reassessment. ''It happened rather gradually," said the senior official, triggered by everything from the insurgency to shifting budgets to US personnel changes in Baghdad.


The debate over a new constitution has particularly driven home the gap between the original US goals and realities after almost 28 months. The US decision to invade Iraq was justified in part by the goal of establishing a secular and modern Iraq that honors human rights and unites disparate ethnic and religious communities.


But whatever the outcome on specific disputes, the document on which Iraq's future is to be built will require laws to be compliant with Islam. Kurds and Shi'ites are expecting de facto long-term political privileges. And women's rights will not be as firmly entrenched as Washington has tried to insist, US officials and Iraq analysts say.


''We set out to establish a democracy, but we're slowly realizing we will have some form of Islamic republic," said another US official familiar with policy-making from the beginning, who like some others interviewed would speak candidly only on the condition of anonymity. ''That process is being repeated all over."


US officials now acknowledge that they misread the strength of sentiment among Kurds and Shi'ites to create a special status. The Shi'ites' request this month for autonomy to be guaranteed in the constitution stunned the Bush administration, even after two years of intense intervention in Iraq's political process, they said.


In the race to meet fall deadlines, the process of forging national unity behind the constitution is largely being scrapped, current and former officials involved in the transition said.


The goal now is to ensure a constitution that can be easily amended later so Iraq can grow into a democracy, US officials say.


Meanwhile, the US military reported today that three US soldiers were killed and another was wounded when their patrol struck a roadside bomb in northern Iraq, according to the Associated Press. The attack at Tuz, about 110 miles north of Baghdad, occurred late on Friday, the military said in a statement. "



"
© Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
 













"




And didn't we help Iran out when they were being invaded?(nm)

.


He invaded a country and committed horrible atrocities there...
we beat him back, should have taken him in the first Gulf war.  But we're always going overboard trying to be nice and where does that get us?  Same place it got us with N. Korea.  Jimmy Carter barters a deal with them for food, and they take the money and use it to build nukes.  Where's the outrage over that?  Sometimes a people just cannot rise up and oust a dictator.  They need help.  And now the time has come for them to quit squabbling amongst themselves and make something out of their country.  Let's not forget how many years it took for Japan and Germany to get on their feet.  We need to give them a little more time.  Heck, this country dissolved into civil war after 100 years.  Time and patience.
If your country were being occupied, blockaded, constantly invaded...
its economy sabotaged, the geography shrunk and splintered beyond recognition, its population systematically starved in a war of attrition, and the purveyors of apartheid were armed to the teeth with weapons of mass destruction of all sorts, including nukes, tanks, F-16s and biologic and chemical weapons and a military bankrolled by an arrogant world super power while the rest of the world throws up their hands in disgust and turns a blind eye, would you lay down like a dog and take it year, after year, after year for decades on end?