[politics] It's a holiday in Cambodia Syria

[updated 20-Oct-05 8:40AM PDT to add attribution; my bad. - ps] No, it doesn't scan as well as Jello's original, but still... Evidently Secretary of State Rice's influence on our military policy only covers air strikes, given the rumors (and off-the-record statements by Administration officials) that US ground troops have engaged Syrian forces in combat - on the Syrian side of the Iraqi/Syrian border. An editorial in this morning's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette by former US Ambassador Dan Simpson (associate editor of the PP-G) lays it out in blunt terms:

The parallel with the Vietnam War, where a Nixon administration deeply involved in a losing war expanded the conflict -- fruitlessly in the event -- to neighboring Cambodia, is obvious. The end result was not changed in Vietnam; Cambodia itself was plunged into dangerous chaos, which climaxed in the killing fields, where an estimated 1 million Cambodians died as a result of internal conflict. On the U.S. side, no declaration of war preceded the invasion of Syria, in spite of the requirements of the War Powers Act of 1973. There is no indication that the Congress was involved in the decision to go in. If members were briefed, none of them have chosen to share that important information with the American people. Presumably, the Bush administration's intention is simply to add any casualties of the Syrian conflict to those of the war in Iraq, which now stand at more than 1,970. The financial cost of expanding the war to Syria would also presumably be added to the cost of the Iraq war, now estimated at $201 billion. The Bush administration would claim that it is expanding the war in Iraq into Syria to try to bring it to an end, the kind of screwy non-logic that kept us in Vietnam for a decade and cost 58,193 American lives in the end.

Santayana... history... lessons... 'doomed to repeat'... Anyone? Anyone? It just seems fitting to end this with lyrics from another song by the DK's - their version of I Fought the Law:

The law don't mean shit if you've got the right friends That's how the country's run Twinkies are the best friend I've ever had I fought the law And I won

[thanks to dKos readers roxtar and jfern for bringing this to everyone's attention] (back to top)