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IPFS News Link • WAR: About that War

Military Escalations in Syria - Mistakes/Catastrophe? Towards a More Pronounced Conflagration?

• Global Research

To become enmeshed in a war of incalculable variables; to be at bloody bruised loggerheads – this is the Syrian nightmare, where there are more punters than odds. Savagely, Syria as a state is being ravaged and mauled to the point of non-recognition. It is now a mere terrain for heavily armed bullies, a smoky crusted ruin of dust and cosmic ruin, its populace fleeing when it can, shielding itself when it must, and hoping for the best.

The great power play never assumes that small states matter. They supply the necessary show for the big game, the theatre set for the show down in which the small scatter whilst the big boys level the punches. In history, the bully is insentient, and normally stumbles into mistake and catastrophe.

In the latest showdown, a Syrian Su-22 jet was shot down by US forces, as was an Iranian-made drone that was said to have "dirty wings", a term used to suggest it was armed. A US-led coalition statement claimed that it would not "tolerate any hostile intent and action of pro-regime forces."[1]

One coalition had slighted another, though it was hardly the first time. Last September, 62 Syrian government troops were killed in a US strike. The reaction these latest engagements was theatrical, with Moscow being furiously remonstrative. An important ally needed shouldering; promises and reassurances needed to be made.

To that end, the use of the US-Russian hotline used to avoid collisions in Syrian airspace was suspended. A promise more with bark than bite also suggested that aircraft flown by the coalition west of the Euphrates would be targeted. None of this suggests a remarkable shift: the danger in such a conflict remain the cooks pondering a spoiling broth.

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Image on the right: General Joseph F. Dunford Jr. (Source: matzav.com)

"This," as General Joseph F. Dunford Jr., chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, "is a delicate couple of hours." But demonstrating how any dish coming out of this dispute is bound to be inedible and constipating in nature, Dunford suggested that the US would work on the military and diplomatic front "to re-establish de-confliction."

De-confliction has become the mangled word of Pentagon speak since a zone of sorts was agreed to between Washington and Moscow. This designation, designed to avoid conflict, has simply refined it.


www.universityofreason.com/a/29887/KWADzukm