I am a Republican. Yet I am having a great deal of heartburn with this latest border strike in Syria by US forces. Why now?

Was this to strike an alleged Al Quieda stronghold in a building over the border? And why couldnt this wait until after the election? If it was needed at all? I believe this is designed to provoke an international incident to somehow make John McCain look good.

Anybody else see it that way? If so, It has to be considered lame beyond all reason by anyone that has a cerebral cortex attached to a medulla oblongatta.

Unfriggin' believable !

KW: This is what we've been complaining about for close to 8 years. Where have you been?

Until now, these operations havent been all that obviously contrived and most of them explainable or framed in some sense of an orderly rationale.

This mission doesnt make ANY sense at all. Especially the timing !

All rationale goes out the window when you consider that Bush INVADED a country that HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH 9/11 and DID NOTHING to find the guy who was responsible for 9/11.

It absolutely makes sense.

We've seen it before. Iran-Contra to get rid of Carter, for example?

Seems to me, he proposed the idea we should not go down the foreign oil path. Can't have that.

Obama is more or less proposing we put an end to neo-conservative economic policy. That goes to the heart of what the current Republican party was trying to establish for the very longer term.

If McCain loses, a lot of powerful interests lose potential returns on their investment.

I see this absolutely as a move to make sure McCain has a leg up in this election. Look at all the other dirty politics. The Republicans are spreading lies HUGE. Everywhere, all the time, trying to scare people out of voting their best interest.

This is no different.

It makes sense from another perspective as well, and that is to hobble what a Democratic President will be able to do.

That's why they worked so damn hard to get agreements for Iraq occupation for the longer term as well. Those failed, and there are people protesting renewing the existing one as you read this. Both Sunni and Sheite (however you spell those) are in these protests, united in opposition to us.

The core pitch here is that government doesn't work for us. Only private entities can take care of us, and we need to let them have all the wealth so they can make the decisions for us as sort of a ruling class.

In order for people to buy this crap, and ignore the clear benefits of the New Deal, government has to be made to not work!

And so it goes on to not work when Republicans are in charge of making it work. Go ahead and look at some of the failures and solutions put into place.

In most instances, you will find deregulation and corruption, followed by manipulation by private interests with those interests sometimes writing the very laws they manipulate under, with the solution always being to grant a fiefdom to the private leaders of that industry.

KW, don't limit yourself to just the military stuff...

It was noted on one of the Noon News updates that McCain didnt refer to this action at all in his rhetoric today. Some thought it was rather strange considering that he is regarded as best candidate on foreign policy/Defense.

All he did was talk about the economy.

I give Bush the benefit of the doubt on this one actually. I don't think he would stoop to trying to provoke an incident just to help McCain. I think that the US military should not put operations "on hold" until after an election if we have some al Qaeda terrorists in our sites. Sometimes the timing is right and you need to strike when you have them.

Big hypothetical here, but: would you have wanted the operation to wait and possibly not get these terrorists and have them wind up pulling off the next 9/11?

Andrew

It is a crap shoot anyway you look at it. But I cant help but be suspicious. Intel. might have had this guy in a rare moment in that building along the border. Evidently a site also occupied with civilians, as is S.O.P cover for Al Quaida and the Taliban.

Then again , it may not have been a rare moment and the administration just decided to hit while it was politically expedient.

Kennewickman, you deserve credit for being among the first to smell a familiar skunk. There are some very good points made in this thread. Yes, we must defend ourselves in our newly framed, and just as scary world. Like most everybody, I am all for taking out the bad guys. At the same time, continuing current policies to their perverse conclusion would put our troops in danger, harm innocent civilians, and might trigger an international conflict.

In special circumstances, I believe that the world community would overwhelmingly support a successful limited raid across a border. However, the unilateral Bush Doctrine represents over seven years of the worst foreign policy in the history of this country. Our credibility is gone. Fighting terrorists is a worldwide job that must have a broad international coalition to succeed. It is why so many people have questions about the wisdom of a raid like the one in Syria.

I just read an interesting piece by Robert Dreyfuss called, "The End of International Law?" Of all the new disturbing facts noted in the article, one really jumps out. Mike Vickers is the assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict. With raids in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Syria in the news -- and Georgia looking more and more like a staged scuffle -- it is interesting to note what Vickers said on October 24th:

"There's been a very significant -- about a 40 or 50 percent increase in operational tempo and of course more intense in terms of the action since the 9/11 attacks. On any given day that we wake up, our Special Operations Forces are in some sixty countries around the world. But more than 80 percent or so of those right now are concentrated in the greater Middle East or the United States Central Command area of responsibility -- the bulk of those of course in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Now, that is a routine dry biscuit of a quote until you take a second glance. Vickers said, "On any given day that we wake up, our Special Operations Forces are in some sixty countries around the world." Assuming that the number of sovereign nations is somewhere around 180, that is a staggeringly honest confession. It means that not just spies, operatives, private armies, mercenaries, corporate thugs, and wannabees, but serious internationally recognized U.S. firepower is being deployed in a third of the world, "on any given day" of the week.

Taken on the whole, this is all really sobering stuff. Especially if one reflects on our current leadership and the desperation of their power base. If they think that anything could be gained by leaving the next President more wars to fight, we could be in for a really somber holiday season.

Ya,

And from all indications to this date and time , the Al Queada guy they were trying to kill either wasnt there or got away. Syria reacted to the incursion and slaughter of civilians by closing an American run school and sent some other diplomatic attaches home.

So this stunt was useless and put another nail in our diplomatic coffin lid. Duh !

I just realized that the link to the article is not working properly. You can find it at The Dreyfuss Report.

"This stunt was useless and put another nail in our diplomatic coffin lid."

I totally agree with you. Our leadership has been causing far more harm than good.

Marwan Muasher, former foreign minister of Jordan, asked a really pivotal question in his recent memoir:

"Years from now, when the history of the modern Middle East will be written, what will it be titled... 'The Center Could Not Hold' or 'A New Beginning'?"

Real Clear Politics

I see it this way in the Middle East. You are going to see years from now a Middle East that is underdeveloped and repressed and the other a much less repressed and overdeveloped economy for reasons other than oil. I look to the United Arab Emirates to lead the charge in the ways of less repressed society as well as thriving economy. Almost a power player metropolitian wise.

Very much in the way that the California economy is a powerhouse for the US will UAE be for the Middle East.