Meaning of US troops attack in Syria

Bush is still president, and still trying to spread his war from Iraq to neighboring Syria. The excuse is that insurgents are coming from Syria into Iraq. Even if true, that does not necessarily mean Syria is trying to jam us up--millions of refugees who fled Iraq ended up in Syria, so it's not surprising that some go back with violent intentions. The Syrian government had actually HELPED Bush earlier on in "War on Terror" by letting Bush send prisoners to Syria to be tortured. That stopped when Bush started talking about invading Syria too.

Oddly, Bush never seems to pursue foreign fighters and insurgents into Saudi Arabia even though Israeli, Saudi, and even Pentagon studies say more foreign fighters come into Iraq from Saudi than any other country. And Congress found that it was not Iraq, Iran, or Syria whose intelligence agencies helped the 9/11 hijackers but Saudi. It makes you wonder if terrorism is the excuse not the cause of the war, and the Saudis are helpfully providing the excuse when needed, and dialing it down when it's not (like during and after the surge).

As this attack on Syria shows, we are still in the ironic position of relying on "rogue nations" like Syria and Iran acting with more restraint and foresight than Bush to prevent a wider or even world war.

We had an uneasy peace for decades with two world superpowers with opposing ideologies. Now that Russia and China are capitalist (if not entirely democratic) how hard could it be to come up with a new balance of power arrangement that could preserve the peace even longer than the Cold War?

I guess we won't know until Bush is out of office. If he succeeds in inciting another war or McCain follows him in office, we may never know.

KEY EXCERPTS:




26 October 2008

'US troops' strike inside Syria

"American soldiers" emerged from helicopters and "attacked a civilian building under construction and opened fire on workers inside - including the wife of the building guard - leading to [the deaths] of eight civilians", it added.

"The helicopters then left Syrian territory towards Iraqi territory," Sana said.

The dead include a man, his four children and a married couple, the Syrian report said, without giving details of the children's ages.

****

The area is near the Iraqi border city of Qaim, a major crossing point for fighters, weapons and money travelling into Iraq to fuel the Sunni insurgency.

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the Appeaser in Chief: Bush visits 9/11 funders, the Saudis

Yesterday Bush said anyone who tries to negotiate with terrorists nations are appeasers; today he visited Saudi Arabia, the country that funded the 9/11 attacks and whose intelligence agent picked up two of the hijackers at the airport when they arrived in the US.

In a technical sense, Bush is not an appeaser. There is no indication he is negotiating anything that would lead to fewer terrorist attacks.

Yesterday in the Israeli Knesset, Bush said:

"Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along."

(Story)

Proving he has no idea what the word irony means, today he is visiting Saudi Arabia, the country that the Joint Congressional Inquiry found gave money to the 9/11 hijackers and help getting settled in the US through their agents.



Since that time, Bush and Cheney have visited Saudi Arabia several times.

It hasn't seemed to have affected their terrorist related behavior since the largest number of foreign fighters and suicide bombers pouring into Iraq are coming from Saudi, and Prince Bandar, the former long time ambassador to the US, threatened Britain with more terrorist attacks if they didn't drop a corruption investigation that involved the Saudis.



In response to us cutting them slack on terrorism, they haven't even done anything to lower the price oil despite Bush's public pleas.

Sadly, Bush is partly right. Too many Democrats ignore the fact that Saudi Arabia attacked us on 9/11, fail to ask publicly why the so-called "War on Terror" seems to be aimed every Muslim country EXCEPT the ones behind the attacks, and even visit and glad hand them.

But they do so following the lead of the appeaser in chief, George W. Bush.

Bandar Bush's terror threat to Britain & his terrorist resume

Saudi Prince Bandar Bush threatened Britain with more 7/7 style terrorists attacks if they didn't back off a corruption investigation, and Tony Blair took the threat seriously.


Let's see, the Joint Congressional Inquiry found Saudi intel financed and directed 9/11, they funded al Qaida to the tune of hundreds of millions a year, and way back during the Lebanon debacle, Casey asked Bandar to carbomb a sheik for us. Currently in Iraq, most of the foreign fighters coming in and doing the car and mosque-bombings that stir up sectarian violence are Saudi. And the Bush administration does nothing about it.

When will people connect the fucking dots?

If your friend is doing bad things, you keep your mouth shut and profit from the bad things, you either approve after the fact, they asked and got your blessing, or you asked him to do the bad things.

BAE: secret papers reveal threats from Saudi prince

Spectre of 'another 7/7' led Tony Blair to block bribes inquiry, high court told

* David Leigh and Rob Evans
* The Guardian,
* Friday February 15 2008

Saudi Arabia's rulers threatened to make it easier for terrorists to attack London unless corruption investigations into their arms deals were halted, according to court documents revealed yesterday.

Previously secret files describe how investigators were told they faced "another 7/7" and the loss of "British lives on British streets" if they pressed on with their inquiries and the Saudis carried out their threat to cut off intelligence.

Prince Bandar, the head of the Saudi national security council, and son of the crown prince, was alleged in court to be the man behind the threats to hold back information about suicide bombers and terrorists. He faces accusations that he himself took more than £1bn in secret payments from the arms company BAE.

He was accused in yesterday's high court hearings of flying to London in December 2006 and uttering threats which made the prime minister, Tony Blair, force an end to the Serious Fraud Office investigation into bribery allegations involving Bandar and his family.

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