ISRAEL BOMBS SYRIA

"This is not an invasion of Cambodia." Richard Nixon April 30, 1970.

AP via the Houston Chronicle:

Israel bombed a target inside Syria that it claimed was an Islamic Jihad training base, striking deep inside its neighbor's territory today for the first time in three decades and widening its pursuit of Palestinian militants.

The airstrike -- a retaliation for a suicide bombing Saturday that killed 19 Israelis -- alarmed the Arab world and deepened concerns that three years of Israeli-Palestinian violence could spread through the region.

Washington urged both sides to show restraint -- but added pointed criticism of Syria, saying Damascus "must cease harboring terrorists and make a clean break from those responsible for planning and directing terrorist action from Syrian soil."

For more, click here.

Why, there's no need to worry about the entire Middle East erupting into intense armed conflict: "man of peace" Ariel Sharon is simply fighting the good fight in the "war on terrorism," just as his good buddy President Bush taught him to do it. How could this be wrong? Move along. Nothing more to see here.

All kidding aside, this strikes me as being pretty dangerous. Sharon really wanted the US to continue it's Iraq invasion into Syria. The fact that we did not seems to be making him try to start something up on his own. It's a major joke that our government suggests "restraint" to both sides--if we were truly interested in reining in Israel, all we would have to do is cut off the billions of dollars in military aid that we give them every year. The neo-cons in the White House would have absolutely no problem with Sharon invading Syria; they wanted to do it themselves, but the money and the national war hysteria ran out. Israel's latest aggressive move may very well be the precursor to an all new war in Syria that may very well see some American involvement before it's all over.

Ideally, this will make everyone forget about the CIA leak scandal. I'm telling you, those neo-con bastards in the White House are evil.

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