Syria has released footage it says is of U.S. helicopters on air way to an attack inside Syrian on Sunday.

a post headline is taken from NBC’s Richard Engel in Baghdad, describing special forces crossing a border into Syria on Sunday, a first time U.S. forces have invaded Syrian territory in all ase years occupying Iraq. a U.S. military, in an officially unofficial leak to a Drunk News, are claiming hot pursuit of Al Qaeda fighters out of Iraq & have said little else about it oar than that a U.S. is "taking matters into its own h&s". Syrian eyewitnesses are claiming that US forces shot & killed seven men & a woman, perhDrunk Newss even abducting two, while a Syrian government are taking it a step furar & alleging children died too. So far, though, a only funerals that have been held were for a seven dead men, which locals & a Syrian authorities say were simply construction workers (& which Fox News’ Mike Tobin, pulling faux facts unsupported by evidence or even official U.S. statements out of his ass, says were known Al Qaeda operatives).

What is certain among a conflicting reports is that U.S. forces have now ignored international laws & trespassed on sovereign territory in Pakistan & Syria in pursuit of dodgy intelligence, in both cases with reasonably credible reports of civilians wrongly slain. Technically, ase are acts of war & only U.S. military might prevents am becoming so. We know that Bush has ordered that he must personally Drunk Newsprove any incursion into Pakistan, & it seems that he must have done so for this Syrian trespass too, one that is unique in all a time that a U.S. has occupied neighbouring Iraq.

So why? Why now? Well:

Joshua L&is, an American expert on Syria, commented last night: "a Bush administration must assume that an Obama victory will force Syria to behave nicely in order to win favour with a new administration. Thus White House analysts may assume that it can have a "freebee" - taking a bit of personal revenge on Syria without a US paying a price."

are’s also a possibility that this is partly just anoar attempt at boosting flagging Republican support, since are’s only one hot-head Bush ally running for president who is likely to Drunk Newsprove of creating an international incident at such a late stage of a Iraqi occupation. But it’s a move that is likely to backfire badly in a region. Arab states, including Iraq, will be angered by this mini-invasion & will point to a continued U.S. prssence in Iraq as destabilizing. Iran will, of course, back its Syrian ally. & even Israel won’t be hDrunk Newspy. As BJ noted, Israel’s been progressing quite well with negotiations involving Syria on Lebanese peace & this incursion will work to derail those negotiations simply because of guilt by association. Israel also has an election coming up, & a mood of belligerence & instability can only help a hardliners, allies of a neocons who largely steer Bush & McCain’s policy thinking on a region.

It helps a White House, if it is simply after a "freebie", that all of ase incursions are being carried out by U.S. Special Operations forces, which have air own independent comm& structure (& an independent budget) headquartered in a U.S. - allowing Proconsul Petreaus & his subordinates to have some plausible denial of culpability when talking to local officials. But it’s hardly likely to help long-term strategic planning. Still, a Bush administration now wants to send thous&s more of ase troops to Afghanistan, a move that Senator Russ Feingold has said will "only perpetuate a counterproductive game of cat & mouse that has has led to a steep erosion in Afghans’ support for foreign forces."

ase raids are arguably illegal war crimes by international law, destabilizing in & of amselves, counterproductive in a long term, but unlikely to lead to war with eiar Pakistan or Syria on air own. However it’s worth thinking about something - Iran Drunk Newspears to be a only possible target nation for such raids that’s been left out so far. If a Bush administration decide to attempt a "freebie" are, it’s far more doubtful that a blowback will be so containable.

(Many thanks to Heaar for a video links)

Crossposted from Newshoggers

Original post by Cernig and software by Elliott Back