U.S. Invaded Syria? Where's the MSM on this??

[radio4progressives]

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/3840

Invade Syria? Insane
Submitted by davidswanson on Thu, 2005-10-20 07:28. Media
Dan Simpson: Invade Syria? Insane
U.S. forces have started fighting Syrians at Iraq's border. Can anybody say 'Cambodia'?
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

As I suspected six months ago, U.S. military and Bush administration civilian officials confirmed last week that U.S. forces have invaded Syria and engaged in combat with Syrian forces.

An unknown number of Syrians are acknowledged to have been killed; the number of Americans -- if any -- who have died in Syria so far has not yet been revealed by the U.S. sources, who by the way insist on remaining faceless and nameless.

The parallel with the Vietnam War, where a Nixon administration deeply involved in a losing war expanded the conflict -- fruitlessly in the event -- to neighboring Cambodia, is obvious. The end result was not changed in Vietnam; Cambodia itself was plunged into dangerous chaos, which climaxed in the killing fields, where an estimated 1 million Cambodians died as a result of internal conflict.

On the U.S. side, no declaration of war preceded the invasion of Syria, in spite of the requirements of the War Powers Act of 1973. There is no indication that the Congress was involved in the decision to go in. If members were briefed, none of them have chosen to share that important information with the American people. Presumably, the Bush administration's intention is simply to add any casualties of the Syrian conflict to those of the war in Iraq, which now stand at more than 1,970. The financial cost of expanding the war to Syria would also presumably be added to the cost of the Iraq war, now estimated at $201 billion.

The Bush administration would claim that it is expanding the war in Iraq into Syria to try to bring it to an end, the kind of screwy non-logic that kept us in Vietnam for a decade and cost 58,193 American lives in the end.

Others would see the attacks in Syria as a desperation political move on the part of an administration with its back against the wall, with a failed war, an economy plagued by inflation --1.2 percent in September, a 14.4 percent annual rate if it continues -- the weak response to Hurricane Katrina, grand jury and other investigatory attention to senior executive and legislative officials, and the bird flu flapping its wings toward us on the horizon. The idea, I suppose, is to distract us by an attack on Syria, now specifically targeted by U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad.

There is some question as to how America's military leadership feels about fighting Syria too, given its already heavy commitment in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. At least some U.S. military officials must wish that President Bush and his associates would move away from his administration's "Johnny One Note," hand-it-to-the-military approach to its problems, now to include Hurricane Katrina-type disaster relief and the newest possible duty, dealing with a bird flu epidemic.


<snipped>


After reading article in full, please call MSM newsrooms and demand coverage of this action AND then call your Senators and House Reps to get out front and center to demand accountability and full disclosure to the American Press and the People!

This is IDENTICAL to the secret bombings of Cambodia AFTER the Pentagon Papers were leaked during Nixon's reign of terror.

[mattclearing]

1. !!!!

I'd like some confirmation on this from multiple sources, but if true, it's totally wrong.

[texpatriot2004]

2. They have been confirming this for hours now. Link is here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=5110277&mesg_id=5110277

[mattclearing]

4. Thanks. That's horrible. n/t

[radio4progressives]

10. Thanks for the link - wasn't on my radar - Who has MSM Phone Numbers?

Need MSM phone numbers of the news rooms ( i already have email addresses i think - but don't want those) .

we need to call the news rooms and demand reporting on this. and I'm also deeply concerned they're about to do this in Venezuela.

We have to stop these pigs now.

[hiley]

3. they are

pretending it has not happened yet, of course.
typical,rumsfeld & bush administration has not given permission yet.

[texpatriot2004]

5. It's like Cambodia in Viet Nam. n.t

[hiley]

7. yes

and the same goes on with Iran..
remember the Scott Ritter piece a while back.

The US war with Iran has already begun
by Scott Ritter
Sunday 19 June 2005 12:06 PM GMT


Americans, along with the rest of the world, are starting to wake up to the uncomfortable fact that President George Bush not only lied to them about the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq (the ostensible excuse for the March 2003 invasion and occupation of that country by US forces), but also about the very process that led to war.
On 16 October 2002, President Bush told the American people that "I have not ordered the use of force. I hope that the use of force will not become necessary."

We know now that this statement was itself a lie, that the president, by late August 2002, had, in fact, signed off on the 'execute' orders authorising the US military to begin active military operations inside Iraq, and that these orders were being implemented as early as September 2002, when the US Air Force, assisted by the British Royal Air Force, began expanding its bombardment of targets inside and outside the so-called no-fly zone in Iraq.

These operations were designed to degrade Iraqi air defence and command and control capabilities. They also paved the way for the insertion of US Special Operations units, who were conducting strategic reconnaissance, and later direct action, operations against specific targets inside Iraq, prior to the 19 March 2003 commencement of hostilities.

President Bush had signed a covert finding in late spring 2002, which authorised the CIA and US Special Operations forces to dispatch clandestine units into Iraq for the purpose of removing Saddam Hussein from power.

snip---

You can find this article at:
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/7896BBD4-28AB-48BA-A949-2096A02F864D.htm

our government sucks

[TheDebbieDee]

6. I remember articles being posted about a US military....

action on the Syrian border the same week as Hurricane Katrina hit NO. That's the reason there were so few helicopters and military personnel available for rescue ops in NO.....they were all in Iraq.

And our pResident has the nerve to imply that Gov. Blanco didn't get the military help she wanted because she didn't ask for it!

Gov. Blanco asked for help, sure enough, but the admin doesn't want to admit that our military was stretched too thin to help on the gulf coast until the following week.

[TheDebbieDee]

14. Too late to edit reply with link to NY Times article of 8/30....

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/30/international/middleeast/30cnd-iraq.html

I speculated, at the time, that this may have been the cause of the sluggish Hurricane Katrina rescue operations in NO.

Gov. Blanco asked for military assistance for Louisiana but those assets were in Iraq and the * admin didn't want to admit that the WOT was affecting our nation's ability to respond to natural disasters and terrorist attacks.

[rocktivity]

8. For this performance of Vietnam Redux

The role of Cambodia will be played by Syria.

Call your Congressional reps and tell them, "VOTE FOR IMPEACHMENT OR I DON'T VOTE FOR YOU."

:headbang:
rocknation

[radio4progressives]

11. exactly n/t

[hiley]

9. let's not forget this either...

What is the U.S. Military Doing in Paraguay?

By Benjamin Dangl

08/04/05 "ICH" - - The U.S. military is conducting secretive operations in Paraguay and reportedly building a new base there. Human rights groups and military analysts in the region believe trouble is brewing. However, the U.S. embassy in Paraguay denies the base exists and describes the military activity as routine. According to an article in the Bolivian newspaper, El Deber, a U.S. base is being developed in Mariscal Estigarribia, Paraguay, 200 kilometers from the border with Bolivia. The base will permit the landing of large aircraft and is capable of housing up to 16,000 troops. A contingent of 500 U.S. troops arrived in Paraguay on July 1st with planes, weapons, equipment and ammunition. (1)

With Bolivia’s recent uprisings, their enormous gas reserves, and a presidential election on the way, this questionable activity could pave the way for a U.S. intervention. Rumors of Al Qaeda training grounds near Paraguay may also work to the Bush administration’s advantage as it makes a case for military operations in the region.

On May 26, 2005 the Paraguayan senate approved the entrance of the troops, granting them total immunity, free from Paraguayan and International Criminal Court jurisdiction. The legislature is due to expire in December 2006, but is automatically extendable. Since December 2004, the U.S. has been pressuring Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela and Paraguay into signing a deal which would grant immunity to U.S. military. The Bush administration threatened to deny the countries up to $24.5 million in economic and military aid if they refused to sign the deal. Paraguay was the only country to accept the offer. (2)

US Embassy Denies Base Claims, Rumsfeld Looks Forward to Military Cooperation:

A statement issued from the U.S. embassy in Paraguay explained that the military exercises in question involve humanitarian and medical assistance to poor communities as well as military training. The embassy maintained that the U.S. has “absolutely no intention of establishing a military base anywhere in Paraguay” and “has no intention to station soldiers for a lengthy period in Paraguay.” (3)
The Pentagon used this same rhetoric when describing its actions in Manta, Ecuador, now the home of an $80 million U.S. military base. First they said the facility was an archaic “dirt strip” which would be used for weather monitoring and would not permanently house U.S. personnel. Days later, the Pentagon stated that Manta was to serve as a major military base tasked with a variety of security-related missions. Human rights groups have linked the U.S. base in Manta to the 2002 coup against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. (4)
snip---
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9677.htm

[radio4progressives]

12. I swear these bastards have got to be stopped. Where the hell is the MSM?

let's get those news room phone numbers now! who has them? please post them here...

[hiley]

13. Someone here knows where the address blaster

is but I don't think phone numbers are on it.
Can't swear it though.

Attack Syria? Invade Iran?: What Gives Them the (Constitutional) Right?

By JEREMY BRECHER and BRENDAN SMITH

10/20/05 "Counterpunch" -- -- Testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on October 19, Condoleezza Rice was asked whether the Bush administration was planning military action against Syria. She answered, "I don't think the President ever takes any of his options off the table concerning anything to do with military force."Last time we read the U.S. Constitution, the grave decision to use military force against another country was a matter for Congress to decide -- not an "option" for a President.

And last time we read the UN Charter, it provided that "all members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state."

We've been here before. President Bush used trumped-up fears (like mushroom clouds over American cities) and frauds (like imaginary "yellowcake" uranium) to fool the American people into attacking Iraq. Now we and the Iraqi people are paying the price.

With the American military bogged down in what Lt. Gen. William Odom, director of the National Security Agency under Ronald Reagan, calls "the greatest strategic disaster in United States history," and with a majority of the American people saying the US made the wrong decision in using military force against Iraq, it may be hard to believe that the Bush administration is really contemplating further adventures. But regimes facing military embarrassment are notorious for expanding the theater of war--witness Nixon's expansion of the Vietnam war into Cambodia. And the same delusions that got us into Iraq--from imaginary threats of illicit weapons to dreams of welcome from cheering crowds--are being repeated about Iran and Syria.

snip---
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10694.htm