US and Israel Test Missile As Syria War Tensions Rise 227
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "Joshua Mitnick reports that Israel and the U.S. carried out a missile test over the Mediterranean Sea on Tuesday morning that was detected by Russian surveillance systems. Israel's defense ministry eventually said a Sparrow rocket had been fired to simulate a ballistic missile attack on the Jewish state to test the Arrow interceptor system. The Arrow – which wasn't fired Tuesday – has been developed to defend against long range rockets primarily from Iran, a main patron of the Syrian regime. Arieh Herzog, a former Israeli missile defense director, says that the Sparrow missile is developed to simulate 'the worst threats' in the region so Israel can hone the capabilities of the Arrow III missile interceptor. Herzog speculated that the launch Tuesday was done at a considerably long range. Another Israeli expert said the incident could be seen as muscle flexing by the U.S. and Israel. 'You could say perhaps its show of strength to Syria and its Iranian ally — that Israel has a range of options at its disposal. And to place pressure on Assad and Iran that Israel takes [retaliation threats] seriously,' says Meir Javedanfar, a lecturer on Iranian politics at the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center. Pentagon press secretary George Little said the U.S. 'provided technical assistance and support to the Israeli Missile Defense Organization flight test of a Sparrow target missile over the Mediterranean Sea.' 'The United States and Israel cooperate on a number of long-term ballistic missile defense development projects to address common challenges in the region,' added Little. 'This test had nothing to do with United States consideration of military action to respond to Syria's chemical weapons attack.'"
Re:Leaked evidence chemical attack was false flag. (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Entirely Sensible (Score:5, Interesting)
I agree. It's difficult to believe they really think they can intimidate these guys. The one running Iran is crazy and the one in Syria is desperate. They aren't going to be put off by a missile test. Of course it's possible Israel is just trying to iron out the kinks in the system in preperation for the shit that is about to hit the fan. I think that a strike is almost inevitable at this point.
Re:Leaked evidence chemical attack was false flag. (Score:5, Interesting)
Wouldn't an American general and his friends speak English? This looks like fake to me. The language seems unnatural for a native speaker. Some examples:
"Hope to see you soon again."
"Thanks God, they are alive. I hope they got a kind of present or some cash."
"I saw it either and got afraid very much."
"I see their faces when in sleep. What did Tony say you about this?"
It was just a US test of the Russian systems (Score:4, Interesting)
The US fired the missile unannounced . . . to see if the Russian surveillance systems could spot it . . . and if the Russians could warn their Syrian pals about it.
They're just probing the target's defenses at this point. Nothing new here. The US military folks just want to see how good the Russian made stuff is, before they do anything for real.
Re:International Dickwaving. (Score:4, Interesting)
Syria - Shia/Alawite govt in spite of a Sunni majority (which is what irritates Saudi Arabia), sustained in power mainly by Iranian support. Now, I wonder if you remember this [theworld.org]?
Other than that, if you really want to lose your mind, have a nice day, sir. [washingtonpost.com]
I really think the best strategic move for USA is to stay out of it: in such a nightmarish overlapping/conflicting seas of interest, it wouldn't take too much for the players to want a simplification: what would be easier than to explain to a population driven crazy by war than "The US devils are to blame" - they'll forget quite quckly about their internal quibbles.
Re:International Dickwaving. (Score:4, Interesting)
Under threat? Tell me when the last Israeli-Syrian war was again? That's like saying the US is always under threat from Mexico. You realize at one point you have to have neighbors, right?
The last Israeli-Syrian war was in 1973... formally. There have been almost continual exchanges of fire between the two countries since that war, however. During most of the several invasions of Lebanon that happened later, Syria backed one or more of the groups involved (Lebanon has been a total basket case of a country for some time). It also doesn't help that from a Syrian point of view Israel is sitting on some of their land (the Golan Heights specifically) and wouldn't mind taking some of that back if the opportunity presented itself. There isn't really much trade that moves between Israel and Syria as well I might add.
Then again there is talk of the "reconquista" in Mexico too, but that is based off of a claim from a war that happened 170 years ago and isn't really taken all that seriously for a great many reasons.
Re:International Dickwaving. (Score:4, Interesting)
To distract the rest of the world from our spying programs.