Reply #55: Syria: American operations have spilled over the border (NYT 10/15)

[mod mom]

Not only is Syria on the list, but as this 10/15 NYT article points out, American operations have spilled over the border, sometimes by accident and sometimes by design! As the American people slowly wake up, the PNAC agenda marches forward.

October 15, 2005


G.I.'s and Syrians in Tense Clashes on Iraqi Border
By JAMES RISEN and DAVID E. SANGER

WASHINGTON, Oct. 14 - A series of clashes in the last year between American and Syrian troops, including a prolonged firefight this summer that killed several Syrians, has raised the prospect that cross-border military operations may become a dangerous new front in the Iraq war, according to current and former military and government officials.

The firefight, between Army Rangers and Syrian troops along the border with Iraq, was the most serious of the conflicts with President Bashar al-Assad's forces, according to American and Syrian officials.

It illustrated the dangers facing American troops as Washington tries to apply more political and military pressure on a country that President Bush last week labeled one of the "allies of convenience" with Islamic extremists. He also named Iran.

One of Mr. Bush's most senior aides, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the subject, said that so far American military forces in Iraq had moved right up to the border to cut off the entry of insurgents, but he insisted that they had refrained from going over it.

But other officials, who say they got their information in the field or by talking to Special Operations commanders, say that as American efforts to cut off the flow of fighters have intensified, the operations have spilled over the border - sometimes by accident, sometimes by design. (*DID YOU READ THAT? SOMETIMES BY ACCIDENT, SOMETIMES BY DESIGN!!!)

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/15/politics/15syria.html?pagewanted=print