Friday, October 27, 2023

U.S. airstrikes upon two sites in Syria were the substance of a released statement of the Secretary of Defense.

 The Oct. 26 statement released by Gen. Austin.

It appears at present, timestamp of this post, no other airstrikes by the US have occurred, and none were inside Iraq, both being within eastern Syria.

The story is all over the web, in media youtube video reports, and in text stories.

Readers are urged to find relevant material online on their own.

Ostensibly, as stated at the end of Austin's press release, this is independent of Israel and Hamas events. However, were storage sites used by Iran to warehouse materiel for deployment into Gaza, it is not expected the US would disclose such a fact in relation to its own air campaigns. What plausible deniability means, now, and its status, are open to speculation. Israel has expanded its air war and incursions into the West Bank and into Labanon, but not into Syria. So far.

What we know is what we can read or view on the internet.

___________UPDATE_________

Friend Gary in St. Cloud, MN, has ideas with which Crabgrass disagrees, and that Crabgrass feels merit a rejoinder - favoring, of all things, DISPROPORTIONATE response, he wrote:

The word retaliation is used repeatedly throughout NBC's report. The U.S. should've let Iran know what the consequences of military strikes against the U.S. would be. That wouldn't stop an Iran strike. It would've told Iran what we'd do if they hit us.

The other part of securing the nation through red lines is to follow through on what you said you'd do. For instance, if Iran attacks a U.S. military base in Syria, the proportional response is to take out an Iranian oil refinery. If Iran or one of its proxies kills a U.S. soldier, the price is taking out Iran's military leaders. If Iran or one of its proxies takes out a military base, the price is killing Iran's top military leaders, taking out Iran's refineries and restoring Trump's maximum pressure sanctions.

The time for diplomacy is over. The time for establishing harsh realities is here. The time for Biden's wimpy airstrikes is past.

His party's guy, years ago gave a rejoinder, this link

The interesting and beneficial thing about opinions is that they can differ.