New War?
U.S. FORCES HAVE INVADED SYRIA
by Dan Simpson
(Member of the editorial boards of The [Toledo] Blade and Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette)

AS I suspected six months ago, and U.S. military and Bush
Administration
civilian officials confirmed, U.S. forces have invaded Syria and
engaged in
combat with Syrian forces.

An unknown number of Syrians are acknowledged to have been killed; the
number of Americans - if any - who have died so far has not yet been
revealed by the U.S. sources, who, by the way, insist on remaining
faceless
and nameless.

On the U.S. side, no declaration of war preceded the invasion of Syria,
in
spite of the requirements of the War Powers Act of 1973. There is no
indication that Congress was involved in the decision to go in. If
members
were briefed, none of them has chosen to share that important
information
with the American people.

Presumably, the Bush Administration's intention is simply to add any
casualties of the Syrian conflict to those of the war in Iraq, which
now
stand at 1,970. The financial cost of expanding the war to Syria would
also
presumably be added to the cost of the Iraq war, now estimated at $201
billion.

Is there any advantage at all to the United States, or to Israel, in
replicating Iraq in Syria? For that is what is at stake. Syria in its
political, ethnic, and religious structure is very similar to Iraq.
Iraq,
prior to the U.S. bust-up, was ruled by a Sunni minority, with a Shiite
majority and Kurdish and Christian minorities.

Syria is ruled by an Alawite minority, with a Sunni majority and
Kurdish and
Christian minorities. That is the structure, not unlike many states in
the
Middle East, that the Bush Administration is in the process of hacking
away
at.

What needs to be done now is for the Congress, and through them, the
American people, the United Nations, and America's allies, the ones who
are
left, to have the opportunity to express their thoughts on America's
expanding the Iraq war to Syria. A decision to invade Syria is not a
decision for Mr. Bush, heading a beleaguered administration, to make
for us
on his own.

--Toledo Blade, October 19, 2005
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www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbc...l/article