Note to dictators: When in doubt, threaten Israel

October 5, 2011 - 9:01 AM by David

A Patriot being fired at an incoming Scud fired from Iraq toward Tel Aviv in 1991. Will we soon see the scene repeated from Damascus?

Even when Israel isn’t part of the story, we end up playing a big role – a booming one even.

As far as I know, we’ve got nothing to do with the bloody civilian revolt taking place in Syria against the regime of President Bashar Assad that has reportedly left thousands dead and Assad on a world popularity level equal to Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi.

The Western world is pressuring Syria with sanctions, even former close friends like Turkey are repulsed by Assad’s brutality and NATO isn’t ruling out a military intervention.

So what does Assad reportedly tell Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in a meeting in late summer according to an Iranian news agency? That if foreign forces launch a military strike against Syria, Assad would not hesitate to launch missile attacks on Tel Aviv and Israel’s other major cities.

“If a crazy measure is taken against Damascus, I will need not more than 6 hours to transfer hundreds of rockets and missiles to the Golan Heights to fire them at Tel Aviv,” Assad said. In addition, the Iranian news agency reported that the Syrian president told the Turkish FM that he would also call on Hezbollah in Lebanon to launch a rocket attack on Israel.

Whoa! Thanks for including us in the party Bashar, but we weren’t actually feeling neglected. We have enough on our hands right now, thank you.

It recalls former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s strategy at the beginning of the Gulf War in 1991 when he began showering Scud missiles on Tel Aviv in an effort to goad Israel into retaliation in an attempt to throw a stick in the spokes of the US-led coalition against his country. We also hadn’t been involved in that skirmish, but found ourselves sitting in sealed rooms with gas masks for hours on end.

We didn’t retaliate then, due to intense efforts by US president George Bush not to play into Hussein’s hands, along with the US providing us with the batteries of Patriot anti-missile installations. It would be interesting to see what our reaction would be this time if Assad would dare to go through with his threats.

Maybe we would hold off retaliating if NATO or US forces went on the attack, but Bashar, I’m telling you, I’m not planning on sitting around in a sealed room with a gas mask on again.

We’re tired of being used as the ‘go to’ door mat/scapegoat whenever things get tough with your murder machine. If you’ve got a problem with other countries blaming you for being a brutal dictator, go after them. But remember, look where Saddam Hussein ended up.

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