Re: The sobering effect of long-range missiles: WP report

[Leigh Meyers <leighcmeyers@xxxxxxxxx>]

Carrol Cox wrote:
> They wouldn't use nuclear weapons on areas (e.g., Lebanon, perhaps
> Syria) which they have always aimed at eventually making part of a
> Greater Israel. The Israeli leaders aren't stupid; they are just vicious and caught under conditions in which an apartheid state such as Israel must expand to survive.
>   
.
It's the "vicious thing" that worries me...

Lets play 'What If...":

What if they nuke Syria as an Iranian proxy, which would please the Bush 
administration because  U.S. State has just re-connected the 'framing" 
dots between Iran and N. Korea because the Iranians allegedly observed 
NK's missile launches.

We nuke NK, and the Israelis nuke Syria, and then we gang up and make 
seriously psychotically deranged noises and demands in the direction of 
Tehran.

Remember who's finger is on the trigger of the U.S. nuclear arsenal... 
Junior!


WatchingAmerica:
http://www.watchingamerica.com/

Saudi Arabia - Al-Sharq Al-Awsat

Protecting Syria from U.S. and Israel May Now Be Impossible

Is Washington prepared to sign off on an Israeli invasion of Syria?

According to this op-ed article from Saudi Arabia's Arabic-language 
Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, Damascus may have committed a fatal error by 
disrupting a deal for the return of one of Israel's kidnapped soldiers, 
and therefore, an Israeli invasion with Washington's tacit approval may 
be imminent.

By Abd Al Rahman Al Rached, Editor-in-Chief  
Translated By Nicolas Dagher

http://www.watchingamerica.com/alsharqalawsat000001.shtml
Arabic: 
http://www.asharqalawsat.com/leader.asp?section=3&issue=10094&article=373602

July 14, 2006

All of the region's concerned parties want to keep Damascus out of 
efforts to put pressure on Israel and Hezbullah. For a number of 
different reasons, the governments involved don't want the open 
battlefield to extend beyond the Lebanese border.

Even when President Bush said a few days ago that Syria must pay a 
price, he never said the price would be a military one. In Jordan, Egypt 
and the Gulf, in spite of differences with the Syrian government and in 
spite of suspicions that the Syrians had a role in pushing Hezbollah to 
get involved with Israel, these governments don't want this war to reach 
Damascus.

WHY INVADE DAMASCUS?

The question is: Can an angry Israel be kept away from Syria this time, 
especially since no one knows if Washington will look the other way?

Now there are signs that Israel might repeat its the invasion scenario 
that it undertook in Lebanon in 1982, but this time in Syria, taking 
advantage of its overwhelming military superiority. This possibility 
doesnât escape Damascus, which is aware of the gravity of the situation.

According an Arab official familiar with the details of this situation, 
Iran is trying to drag its feet by using Syria to escalate the situation 
and avoid its own direct involvement. Iran is using Damascus like a 
chess piece to manipulate a regional conflict. Tehran is in a state of 
conflict with the West over its growing political influence in the 
region and its nuclear program, and is now prepared to move the crisis 
to the level of direct confrontation.

Lebanon is a country without a strong and reliable central government, 
and at the same time, it is impossible to control the actions of the 
various parties on the ground [such as Hezbullah]. As for Syria, on the 
other hand, there is a well-settled political system which would be 
undermined by a military attack, and which could lead to a situation 
that could spin out of Damascus' control. It is this likelihood of chaos 
that so frightens countries throughout the region. No one wants to see 
another Iraq or another regime come tumbling down.

One Arab official said: "We believe that the Syrian government committed 
serous mistakes, and continues to do so," in an apparent reference to 
the fact that Syria disrupted a deal between Hamas and Israel to free 
the first Israeli soldier that was kidnapped. Such a deal, if it had 
taken place, would likely have prevented Hezbollah from kidnapping two 
Israeli soldiers a few days later, sparking the war now taking place in 
Lebanon. He also added: "In spite of all this, there is an agreement 
that the fire should not reach Syria, since the Lebanese people would 
pay dearly for any destabilization that hits Syria."

Recently, Egypt sought to prevent a U.S. military campaign against 
Syria, following Washington's accusations that Damascus was behind all 
of the terrorist attacks against American soldiers in Iraq and the 
assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The 
countries of the region have interceded on many occasions to protect 
Syria from all possible attacks.

If such an open confrontation does take place, Iran knows that it has 
little to lose, being a large country with a strong military, and with 
an established political system and lots of  oil in high demand.

Syria's situation is different, situated as it is between the hammer of 
American and anvil of Israeli, with a broken-down economy and unable to 
cope with Israeli power on its own.

Like the person afraid of seeing a demon, the Arab official said that 
there has always been a fear that such a war was likely to happen, and 
now it looks like the present war might spin out of control.

#33#

Also See the breaking story:
Israel hints at full-scale Lebanon attack

By LEE KEATH, Associated Press Writer 40 minutes ago
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060721/ap_on_re_mi_ea/lebanon_israel

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Pitched battles raged between Israeli forces and 
Hezbollah fighters on the border Thursday, and Israel warned hundreds of 
thousands of people to flee southern Lebanon "immediately," preparing 
for a likely ground offensive to set up a buffer zone.
<...>

I say that "Plan A" is to partition and fight a socio-politico-economic 
war pushing northward for the next decade or so. I've expounded on that 
previously, and I'm not alone in my analysis.

...and then, when the bodies of the butchery-on-a-regional-scale are all 
buried, the industrialists such as Rafiq Hariri's son can make their 
millions rebuilding the region... again, and again, and again.

They'll also own the companies running the nuclear cleanup operations.


Leigh
http://leighm.net/
"Bad nightmare! Bad!"