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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| HereÂ’s why Obama is giving up the element of surprise in Syria |
| 2013-08-28 |
| WhatÂ’s about to happen, if the United States and allies do go through with the strikes, is less of a war and more of a ritual. This isnÂ’t about defeating Assad, itÂ’s about punishing him. And that calls for being really precise about how much punishment the United States imposes. This is what the Clinton administration did in 1998 with Operation Desert Fox, when it and the United Kingdom bombed Iraq as punishment for cheating on weapons of mass destruction disarmament. The strikes were also intended to degrade IraqÂ’s WMD production capacity. The 100 or so targets were, as now with Syria, telegraphed ahead of time. Many of them were empty. Iraq knew it was coming and was mostly unsurprised, which meant that it didnÂ’t escalate. The campaign was limited in scope and, although the history of Iraq and WMDs is obviously a thorny one, appeared to be largely successful at least at punishing Saddam Hussein. The writer has a very strange definition of "success". Here's my 2 cents on what the big O is going to do: nothing. He'll find some way to punt. From now on they're on double secret probation! |
| Posted by:Spot |
| #3 That would be the aspirin factory staffed by Iranian "Humanitarian Aid Volunteers", with kittens. Limited air campaign against targets chosen by the president, announced ahead of time. Sounds familiar. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2013-08-28 18:30 |
| #2 When do we bomb the aspirin factory? |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2013-08-28 17:57 |
| #1 Right. "Mr. Big" from Chicago doesn't even get how street violence works, where the gun is waved around immediately on the slightest pretense and usually is fired in short order, even if just for show... |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2013-08-28 16:19 |