“Remember the Maine, to hell with Spain!” American refrain, circa 1898
“It’s entirely possible that the main mission of the CIA, in this case, is to sort out who’s who among the rebels, since undoubtedly the more level-headed people in Washington are saying to themselves, “Who are these guys?” (I’m wondering that myself.) but it’s equally possible, and more likely, that the CIA is involving itself more deeply in coordinating the weapons flow into Syria. That’s been reported for a while now, and if so it means that the Obama administration is edging closer to an open, armed regime-change strategy aimed at a major Russian and Iranian ally. Meanwhile, even Turkey’s NATO allies seem to be privately ridiculing Turkey’s assertion that its plane was on a training mission. That seems patent nonsense, and much more likely is that Turkey was testing Syria’s air defense and perhaps trying to provoke the creation of a NATO-imposed, Iraq-style no-fly zone in Syria. Had Syrian jets scrambled to protect its air space, by now hawks and quite a few Obama administration officials would be clamoring for a no-fly edict backed by US armed forces. This is dangerous, Tonkin Gulf–style gamesmanship……………”
No doubt the Turkish story about the warplane smells fishy: too many details are left out and no clear explanation given of its mission. Sounds like a classic set-up, an entrapment of the kind Western powers have used in the past for invasion and interference, from Mexico and the Caribbean (USA) to Algeria (France) and Egypt (Britain). Hitler (do I see Netanyahu perk up?) used the tactic against Czechoslovakia (Sudetenland) and Poland (Danzig/Gdansk).
I believe the US Senate has passed several equivalents of the Tonkin Gulf resolution by now against both Syria and Iran. The USA and the European Union have done so. It is now highly unlikely that the US Congress, both houses, will oppose military action against either Syria or Iran. That in itself is quite a reversal of American thinking, even of what prevailed under George W Bush.
This goes beyond Bush’s war of deterrence, or “if you are not with us you are against us”. This is a policy of “if you remain opposed to us we will eventually attack you”. And it is bi-partisan, just like Tonkin. The aftermath of Tonkin Gulf was quite a waste of so much blood and treasure of both Americans and Asians. Unless they think this one will turn out like Havana and the aftermath of “Remember the Maine, to hell with Spain!“
Cheers
mhg
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