U.S. Marines in battle with Syrian troops

[still_one]

I know some people do not like Debka as a news source, but in my experience they are at least 80 to 90 percent accurate:

DEBKAfile Exclusive: US Marines are locked in battle with Syrian troops after crossing the border from Iraq into Syria at a point west of al Qaim

November 25, 2005, 12:27 AM (GMT+02:00)

Both sides have suffered casualties. US soldiers crossed over after Damascus was given an ultimatum Thursday, Nov. 24, to hand over a group of senior commanders belonging to Abu Musab al Zarqawi’s al Qaeda force. According to US intelligence, the group had fled to Syria to escape an American attack in Mosul. Syrian border guards opened fire on the American force.

http://www.debka.com/

[blitzen]

1. I haven't read them for quite awhile, but I'd say more like....

10 % accurate. Some of the stuff they were putting out on Iraq (for instance, on WMDs) was total propaganda.

[still_one]

2. absolutely correct, but they called bin laden's escape at

tora bora, the saudi kings death, and quite a lot of other stuff.

O.K. maybe I exagerated, but I believe it is at least 50/50

It is pretty easy to tell the propaganda from the factual event though

[blitzen]

4. okay, i'll give them another shot...

but you're right, their propaganda is painfully obvious

[still_one]

6. and you have a point also

they definitely have a bias toward likud and PNAC agenda

[The Magistrate]

5. The Christian Science Monitor Had the Tora Bora Story Before Debka, Sir

Nor was the Saudi King's death any great scoop.

[still_one]

7. I don't about the tora bora story

From my memory they reported it several months before they picked it up here

You might be right about the Christian Science Monitor and the Saudi King, but I do know they announced he was on his death bed two weeks before he died, and the U.S. press were pretty quite about his illness

I am NOT defending them, and agree they have issues, but sometimes beyond the distortions and mistatements things comes out.

If we are really fight the Syrian Army because we crossed over into Iraq I am pretty sure they cannot keep that quiet too long from even our MSM, so we should know soon

[kentuck]

"No, we did not cross over the border into Cambodia..."

Nixon said....but he lied. So have we crossed over into Syria?? Who knows?

[still_one]

9. we will know soon enough. This they cannot keep quiet

[The Magistrate]

3. They Make Things Up At Debka, Sir

And exaggerate past all recognition the things they do not create from whole cloth. there will have to be much more reliable reports of this before it can be taken as anything but a garden variety border clash, if even that has occured....

[bemildred]

8. Indeed. While not always wrong, worthless as a source of news.

Not that there is anyplace you can trust these days.

[still_one]

13. How right you are

[WilliamPitt]

11. "a garden variety border clash"

Gad zooks.

Not taking issue with your post, sir. But reading that made me want to run my head through something hard.

"Was this trip really necessary?"

[still_one]

14. of course I do NOT know the accuracy

but if we engaged with Syrian troops that is a terrible escalation

What many do not realize was that when congress voted for the IWR, they also gave the president the authority for nonesense like this

Please do not bang you head against something hard, we need your voice

[bemildred]

17. FWIW.

This sort of story has popped up occasionally for some time now. So far, they sink like stones without ever being picked up in the MSM. If the US were actually trying to get something going, I would expect an associated media campaign aimed at militray action, as opposed to the ongoing diplomatic propaganda effort.

I have only seen one real reporting story from the border, an excellent one, in the LA Times I think it was, but quite a while back now.

[The Magistrate]

18. Doubtless, My Friend

There will be, and probably already have been, incursions on a small scale. The Syrians are politic enough not to make too great a fuss over such incidents, and it is not to the interests of the U.S. to publicize them much either.

[The Magistrate]

15. Very Few Trips Are Necessary, Mr. Pitt

But there is little room to doubt the relations between the U.S. and Syria are at bottom hostile, and that the porosity of the poorly marked border and the possibility of guerrilla sanctuaries on the western side of it is the leading issue. Both governments have young men with guns in their hands up on the dividing line, both are proud and some of their officers eager firebrands, and such circumstances have often been marked in history by gunfire on some scale.

[still_one]

12. you don't have to be so formal and call me sir

however, take it with a grain of salt, and we will see in the course of time what develops



Peace

[Radio_Lady]

21. It's the Magistrate's style to call you "Sir" -- it was a little disarming

to me at first, but that's his way.

[still_one]

22. OK, cool

[upi402]

10. Cambodia redux

[cliss]

16. Well, why not?

Isn't this what happened in VietNam? I think the war spilled over into Cambodia. U.S. troops were caught in the cross-fire.

The war in Iraq has paralleled VietNam in many ways.

Now if we have U.S. casualties in the event that we crossed over to Syria, I do not expect the Pentagon to divulge any information.

However, I would expect that Russia would react. Probably also Iran. Will try to check some news outlets tomorrow.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

19. We deliberately and secretly planned to cross into Cambodia...

...just like we deliberately and secretly bombed those sections of the Ho Chi Minh trail that crossed into Cambodia.

If we've gone into Syria, my bet is that it's completely unplanned at this point...and way ahead of when they actually plan to invade.

[ngGale]

20. Wars have been known to spill over borders...

:scared: