To Syria via Turkey

Still, no one knows exactly what happened between Israel and Syria earlier this month.  It’s such a big secret that nobody is fessing up.  Can’t just be Israel attacking Hezbollah supply lines, could it? Rumors abound of a North Korean cargo ship delivering “concrete” to Syria–a country that doesn’t exactly need to import such a commodity. Phantom nuclear sites. Bizarre flight patterns by Israeli F-15’s.  Some sources suggest that Israel fears Syria is pursuing missile technology with a Pyongyang only too anxious to rekindle the Baathist missile fetish most recently indulged in 2001 with another, infamous Baathist regime.

It’s such a big secret that it must have something to do with a heretofore, undisclosed Syrian nuke program and its alleged North Korean benefactors.  Regardless of being burdened with simultaneous cases of Iranian and North Korean cheating,  how could an international oversight group like the IAEA be completely unaware of a Syrian weaponization program already considered so dangerous that the Israelis risk international condemnation in order to destroy it?  And how could the DPRK manage such an underground relationship while already under such intense scrutiny?  If there is indeed such a working relationship between Pyongang and Damascus there must also be an accompanying corruption of an unprecedented magnitude at the international watchdogs.  But, as the Syrians and North Koreans both claimed today, maybe there really is no working relationship.

Maybe it’s such a big secret because of a completely different reason. While we’re left scratching our collective heads in a media blackout that may last for weeks, allow me to fill the speculative void with a little collusion talk of my own.   Could Israel be helping the United States attack Syrian targets directly responsible for the movement of jihadis and weapons across the Iraqi border?  Since Israel has been in a near constant state of war with Damascus for so many years and has bombed Syrian targets prior to and probably during last summer’s war against Hezbollah, why wouldn’t the Bush Administration–so far reluctant to attack terrorist assets beyond Iraqi borders–borrow the airpower of a friendly ally already at war with America’s common enemy?  Direct attacks by American warplanes would face so many symbolic and jurisdictional burdens.  And, although it may have been Israeli jets dropping the jellybeans, they could have been piloted by American volunteers, a la Eagle Squadron (I know, I’m really pushing it here).   Syria and Iran wanted a proxy way,  and we may be giving it to them.  But I digress. . .

Interestingly, the Israeli attack–along with a surge in diplomatic pressure on jihadi “source” states like Saudi Arabia– coincides with the beginning of a positive trend.  The numbers of jihadists entering Iraq via Syria are declining and the number of suicide bombings are trending downward as well, although the exact reasons why aren’t yet clear.   Perhaps the surge has a meaning or two that have not been thoroughly discussed.