The United States is reportedly preparing to extend the just-started war on the radical groups in Iraq to neighboring Syria, heading toward a controversial war that Washington sought to engage in to overthrow the Syrian President.
Just one day after US chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey declared that the new Iraq War was unwinnable without going into neighboring Syria, the administration is starting to talk about such an escalation as virtually a done deal, the AntiWar writes in an article.
“We’re not going to be restricted by borders,” insisted Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes, who talked up the execution of kidnapped reporter James Foley as a “terrorist attack” against the United States in general, justifying the further escalation of the war.
Rhodes wouldn’t explicitly say that the US is going into Syria, but all of his comments pointed in that direction, saying the goal of attacking the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) terrorist group everywhere they are is going to “guide our planning in the days to come.”
The Pentagon’s push for an escalation of the air war in Iraq is now combined with the calls to expand across the border as well.
Analysts continue to say the airstrikes are unlikely to be a game-changer, and that ground troops are going to be an inevitable future step.
Officials have continued to insist ground troops aren’t in the plans, but they continue to add goals to the war that are making a ground invasion less speculative, and more a matter of time.
It’s only been two weeks since the Iraq air war began, and several escalations have already been pushed through.
The foundation is being laid for an open-ended war with ever expanding goals and boundaries, and Syria is just the next stop on America’s reinvasion of the region.
SHI/SHI
