Most of the really relevant news takes place on “Page 26”. That being, the real stories are buried under the previous pages of celebrity worship, McScandals, and government self-aggrandizement. Yesterday’s Page 26 was the fact that a number of U.S. Marines and U.S. Army Rangers have just entered Syria. There was even some nifty footage showing up-armored Humvees and Stryker APCs flying Old Gory, er, Glory as they rolled in. Now, the story is that they’re there to provide back-up for U.S. military advisors working with the Syrian guerillas supposedly fighting ISIS in Syria. Or, rather, fighting ISIS right now until a better offer comes down the pipe.
Of course, this whole “Gosh, we’re just sending a few folks to help out our advisors…” is exactly how the Vietnam War got started. Or, actually, the United States involvement in it. As we know, the French had already lost it during their turn at Wheel Of Police Actions. Yes, it could take months to a year to get into a shooting war going the advisors route. But if your advisors begin drawing fire, gosh, you have to defend them, right? The only reason they had to go public with this was because they needed to make sure the Russians didn’t accidently shoot these guys. Or, rather, before Russian and Middle Eastern news agencies broke the story and embarrassed the United States.
On the other hand, what this group of Marines and Rangers could be is an advance recon team scoping out locations for firebases to establish in Syria. Now, Syria has already said they’re not going to be at all pleased with American troops in Syria. So, of course, everything will have to be done discreetly so Syria wakes up one morning and there’s three U.S. firebases complete with sandwich shops and pizza parlors right there on their front porch. And what a better distraction for the current embarrassing peccadillos of the Trump Administration than a good war. The government’s not going to want to get into a major political scandal in the middle of a war. Not even the Democrats are that stupid. But to be fair, Trump did say he was going to wipe ISIS off the face of the planet. There’s a problem with that, though.
The entity we know as al-Qaida began during the 1980s. They didn’t decide to attack the United States until 1992. But, that means al-Qaida is now old enough to be considered a “classic” since they’re 25 years into this shindig. And they survived 15 years of military action against them since Bush failed to wipe them off the face of the planet, or whatever bloviating poppycock he vowed to do to render them null and void. See, there went that botched raid into Yemen just a few weeks ago to get, guess who? Right, our old classic al-Qaida, alive and kicking after all these years. They’ll be able to release a second “Greatest Hits” album soon.
This means what? It means ISIS might be kicked out of Syria and Iraq, but they won’t be gone. In fact, it’s when you don’t hear from them that they’re up to something big. They’re like the devious child who, when he’s quiet, is trying to create mustard gas in his parent’s basement using his big brother’s high school chemistry set. The parents suddenly say, “Say, where’s Billy? I don’t hear him playing with his inert howitzer shell collection. What do you suppose he’s up to?” And then they see a mushroom cloud down the block. So, the reality is you’re not going to be able to wipe out ISIS because the al-Qaida Principle says once it goes into franchise, it’s too late. They’ll be going so long, the founding members will be able to collect their 401k and retire.
Do I think we’re going to war in Syria? I think it’s not a matter of “if” but “when”. Obama never could pull the trigger on the Syrian War, but we can know that the plans have already been made. That is, after all, why the Pentagon exists. They sit up there and plan how wars will be fought with every nation on the planet. Especially in the case of Syria. So, they’ve already got the Syrian War battle plans ready to go. Everything right down to movement of toothpaste to the troops. They’ve got the units earmarked, the transportation to be requisitioned, and the ordnance already stockpiled. I daresay we’ll wake up one morning and the war will have already begun. Once again, terrorists sucker the United States into flailing against a tar baby. And the United States falls for it every time.
11:45 am on March 9, 2017
