I've been worried about a new front opening on the Presidents global war, most people I talk to think we are spread too thin for Bush to risk it. But evidence is starting to mount that an invasion of Syria has already begun.
First there was this exchange in the senate yesterday.
Yesterday, in her appearance before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Lincoln Chafee wanted to clarify a simple issue - did the Iraq war resolution passed by Congress restrict military action only to Iraq? Chafee asked, "So would you agree that if anything were to occur on Syrian or Iranian soil, you would have to return to Congress to get that authorization?" Rice responded:
RICE: Senator, I don't want to try and circumscribe presidential war powers. And I think you'll understand fully that the president retains those powers in the war on terrorism and in the war on Iraq. ...
CHAFEE: So that's a no.
RICE: Senator, I am not going to be in the position of circumscribing the president's powers.
More evidence in extended copy. [update at the bottom]
Then I ran across
this article:
As I suspected six months ago, U.S. military and Bush administration civilian officials confirmed last week that 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 in Syria so far has not yet been revealed by the U.S. sources, who by the way insist on remaining faceless and nameless.
Let's face it, with Bush and Rumsfield in charge, a little thing like reality isn't going to stop them. There is a feeling among some conservatives that Bush recent setbacks are because he stopped going on the offensive, and started playing defense. A new war, timed around the next elections, would, they think, rally people around the president.
What the current plan on the borders of Syria are designed to do is provoke the Syrians into a response that would be the cause for war, and allow Bush to argue that the invasion of Syria is a part of the Iraq war, and so requires no new congressional action.
Update [2005-10-20 18:17:58 by DJ Adequate]: Annother possible piece of evidence. Bill O'Reilly is back to pushing the "WMDs move to Syria" line.
Watch to see if this spreads in the Right Wing media.