PURITAN NEWS WEEKLY

www.puritans.net/news/

03/16/04

 

 

A US WAR IN SYRIA?

 

 

 

By Parnell McCarter

 

Although no formal war has broken out between the US and Syria, there is growing evidence of US “police action” in Syria.  In other words, there is growing evidence of an undeclared war within the borders of Syria, being carried out by US special forces. 

US special forces are increasingly being called on to wage the US “war on terrorism”.  They operate in a clandestine fashion, and rapidly deploy.  Thus, “police action” carried out by such special forces avoids the protracted and public debate that characterized the war in Iraq.

Even last year special forces were operating within the borders of Syria, as described in the following excerpted article:

U.S. Syria raid killed 80

By Richard Sale
UPI Intelligence Correspondent

07/17/03 (Washington Times) ) Depicted by the Pentagon as a mere border skirmish, the June 18 strike into Syria by U.S. military forces was, in fact, based on mistaken intelligence and penetrated more than 25 miles into that country, causing numerous Syrian casualties, several serving and former administration officials said.

Although diplomatic relations between the two sides have been frosty after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq, the two nations have close intelligence ties, which have become strained as a result, these sources said.

"I think this was a deliberate effort to disrupt cooperation between U.S. and Syrian intelligence agencies," an administration official said.

According to a report in The New York Times, administration officials said that attack, carried out by Task Force 20, a Special Operations force, was based on intelligence that a convoy of SUVs, heading for Syria, was linked to senior fugitive Iraqi leaders.

"The (intel) was that senior Iraqis, perhaps even (former Iraqi leader) Saddam Hussein were getting out of the country," a State Department official told United Press International.

The ensuing raid "was conducted under the rules of hot pursuit," an administration official told UPI on condition his name not be used.

In the same Times report, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, defended the attack, saying it was based on "solid intelligence."

"We had good intelligence, and it indicated that there were people moving around during their curfew close to the border in a convoy of SUV's and our forces went in and stopped them," the Times quoted Rumsfeld as saying.

But one administration official described the intelligence as "totally false," and a former CIA official labeled it "flimsy" and another former U.S. intelligence official called it "almost non-existent."

One former senior CIA official with access to current intelligence information said he believed the source of the intelligence was Israel, which for months has said either Saddam or weapons of mass destruction were being smuggled into Syria…   (see http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4138.htm    )

 

 

 

The following article provides more details about the nature of operations both within the borders of Syria, as well as occupied Iraq:

 

 

“Israel trains US assassination squads in Iraq

Julian Borger in Washington
Tuesday December 9, 2003
The Guardian


Israeli advisers are helping train US special forces in aggressive counter-insurgency operations in Iraq, including the use of assassination squads against guerrilla leaders, US intelligence and military sources said yesterday.

The Israeli Defence Force (IDF) has sent urban warfare specialists to Fort Bragg in North Carolina, the home of US special forces, and according to two sources, Israeli military "consultants" have also visited Iraq.

US forces in Iraq's Sunni triangle have already begun to use tactics that echo Israeli operations in the occupied territories, sealing off centres of resistance with razor wire and razing buildings from where attacks have been launched against US troops.

But the secret war in Iraq is about to get much tougher, in the hope of suppressing the Ba'athist-led insurgency ahead of next November's presidential elections.

US special forces teams are already behind the lines inside Syria attempting to kill foreign jihadists before they cross the border, and a group focused on the "neutralisation" of guerrilla leaders is being set up, according to sources familiar with the operations.

"This is basically an assassination programme. That is what is being conceptualised here. This is a hunter-killer team," said a former senior US intelligence official, who added that he feared the new tactics and enhanced cooperation with Israel would only inflame a volatile situation in the Middle East…” (see http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1102940,00.html )

 

And the following article documents how the “police action” may be escalating:

 

“US War on Terror May Spread to Syria, Report Says
By Jeff McKay
CNSNews.com Correspondent
January 23, 2004

(CNSNews.com) - A new report indicates that Syria may be the next target in the U.S. war on terror.

In a report released Friday by the London-based Jane's Intelligence Digest, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was quoted as saying that the U.S. is considering "multi-faceted attacks," which could be conducted against Hezbollah positions in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, controlled by Syria.

According to the report, the U.S. move would "almost certainly involve a confrontation" between American Special Forces and Syrian troops.

The report highlights potential military action against Somalia as well as Syria. According to the Jane's report, "Covert U.S. forces have periodically infiltrated Somalia over the past two years to conduct surveillance and even potentially snatch suspects wanted for the November 2002 suicide bomb attacks in Mombassa, Kenya."

In near simultaneous attacks, al Qaeda terrorists bombed a hotel and attempted to bring down an Israeli airliner using a shoulder-fired, surface-to-air missile.

In addition, the Jane's report states that during the past six months, there has been an increased US military presence along the Syrian border with Iraq "and, on several occasions, [the U.S.] has sent special forces into Syrian territory or penetrated Syrian air space."

The report also detailed a running gun battle between Saddam loyalists and U.S. troops who crossed into Syrian territory, resulting in the deaths of dozens of people, including Syrian nationals…”  (see http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewForeignBureaus.asp?Page=/ForeignBureaus/archive/200401/FOR20040123b.html )

 

By escalating US “police actions” in Syria, as well as extending them into Lebanon, the US puts Syria into the horns of a dilemma.  If Syria fails to respond militarily, she can expect further escalation of “police actions” within her borders and that of her protectorate Lebanon, since little resistance would have been offered.  Yet, if Syria responds militarily, she may well precipitate a more direct confrontation with the US, providing the US with its needed justification for such a direct confrontation.  A direct confrontation, if it provoked an all out war between the US and Syria, would most assuredly result in the demise of Syria’s current regime, just as Saddam Hussein’s war with the US led to the defeat of his regime.

The greatest costs to the US in such a war in Syria would probably not be immediate but long term.  As in Iraq, there would be reconstruction costs associated with a US “victory”.  Too, the US should expect that various acts of terrorism would follow, as that is the only real way that Muslims and Arab nationalists can respond by force against the overwhelming military advantages of the US.  Suicide bombings – whether in Israel, Iraq, or elsewhere – seem to be a favorite means of response by Muslims and Arab nationalists in the Middle East.

Of course, the most important question we should ask is what God’s Word says about all of this.  It seems to teach that national boundaries should be respected, and that nations should not be provoked into war by a disrespect of national boundaries.  The rulers that be are ordained of God, as we there read. 

Of course, it could be argued that the presence of terrorist organizations in Syria justifies such US incursions.  But I think we should respond to that argument with the following observations:

First, **if** the presence of organizations like Hezbollah in Syrian-governed areas indeed justifies war, then the US should pursue such a war according to its Constitutionally established method, by a formal declaration of war.  It should not employ the under-handed method of “police actions”, which eventually precipitate Syrian military response and war.

Second, the presence of organizations like Hezbollah did not arise in a vacuum.  Zionist Israel and its US ally have done their fair share in the Middle East to arouse the Muslim hatred which led to the formation of groups like Hezbollah.  This is not to justify Hezbollah, for it is wicked, as is Islam itself.  But so are secularist Israel and the US.  All of the parties concerned are in rebellion against Christ and His Ten Commandments.  And they all have been conducting themselves in a way contrary to Biblical principles.  We should not be surprised if it leads to more war and terrorism.