War Drums! Israel, KSA will fight Iran to the last drop of American tax dollars!

As to when this latest war will get underway -- 

      

May 8,  Sic Semper Tyrannis (Col. Pat Lang, Rtd.): 

Israel will now drive the U.S. to war with Iran 

... I am told that Israeli electronic counter-measure units started a massive jamming effort against air defense assets in Syria three days ago. Israeli ground forces on the Golan Front have been placed on high alert. IMO a false flag attack on Israel is likely.

May 10, Debkafile: 

Golan under Iranian attack. Al Qods units launch 20 rockets at IDF positions. No casualties

... The missiles falling around the IDF’s forward positions on the Golan border with Syria set off warning sirens just before one a.m. Civilians were ordered to take shelter in protected areas.

The IDF issued a communique half an hour later, saying: “We view with extreme gravity the Iranian missile attack on the Golan and are ready for a number of different scenarios.”

A short time later, social media reported that several explosions rocked Damascus, and claimed that Israeli jets struck several military sites belonging to Bashar Assad’s forces and the Iranian Al-Qods units near the Syrian capital. This was not confirmed by any authoritative source.

In short, it looks like the war will launch as fast as Israeli and American war hawks can make it happen. But U.S. taxpayers should look on the bright side; at least Israel and Saudi Arabia won't have to fight Iran to the last drop of American blood. That's because the District of Columbia wised up. (I refuse anymore to refer to the U.S. regime as "Washington"). This was after too many Americans came home in body bags as the Afghan War, launched in 2001, ground on for years while generals fiddled with "population-centric" counterinsurgency tactics. CENTCOM then dusted off the Afghan Mujahideen Model of U.S. Armed Conflict during the Soviet era. 

So now U.S. troops no longer actually fight wars; we contract out our wars then equip and supervise the mercenaries we whip into a fighting force. 

More good news for American parents is that the real target of the war drums isn't actually Iran; it's our dear European allies -- the ones who've dug in their heels about abandoning the infamous Iran Deal. 

Got all that? No? Then I'll give the last words to The Independent's crazy Robert Fisk, who after all has only spent 40 years mucking around conflict zones in the Middle East:

... Some days ago Bashar al-Assad held a private meeting of Syrian journalists in Damascus and informed them that relations had resumed – at a very low and humble level – between Qatar and Syria. They were not under any circumstances to quote him as saying this, nor to give any presidential credence to the story. But they could mention it in passing, stressing that this was not a resumption of relations, merely two nations maintaining contact. But it makes an intriguing story.

[See the report for the intriguing story, which involves the world's most expensive nuns.]

But it is Qatar which we should be thinking about. Qatar is great because it has oil and liquid gas and the al-Jazeera television channel. But it is alone, praying that the Saudis and the Emiratis don’t invade it, a tiny peninsula containing a huge American military base but much abused by Donald Trump himself.

Its royal families might be emperors but they have no empire; imagine Britain without India. But if Qatar was to rescue Syria when the war there is over – if its vast wealth could rebuild that ancient land – then Qatar would have an empire for its emperors.

Not that Qatar would ever own Syria – far from it, Syrians would fight to stop that – but it would have, as we say in the Middle East, “considerable influence”. It would have power. And a power – with a Mediterranean coastline – that even Saudi Arabia doesn’t have.

Is that what we are seeing the start of right now? Of course, the Russians would also be involved – and let’s remember that the Saudi king was a guest of Putin not that long ago – and perhaps the Iranians, in a marginal way.

The idea, by the way, that the Iranians dominate Syria is a myth, much repeated by Benjamin Netanyahu. Nor, I might add, are they terribly popular. On all my travels, I haven’t seen an Iranian on the Syrian front lines for more than a year. Hezbollah, yes. And of course, the Syrian army would play a prominent part in the rebuilding of Syria. If Assad survives – and I’ve yet to meet anyone in Syria who thinks otherwise – then the army will survive. ...

As to what Qatar's present predicament would have to do with the Saudis prodding the Israelis to prod the Americans to prod our dear European allies into abandoning the Iran Deal -- it has everything to do with it, from the vantage point of the Mad Hatter's tea parties.
    

See also:

Syrian air defense engages Israeli rockets near Damascus – State media
Published time: 9 May, 2018 22:54

Edited time: 10 May, 2018 00:57
RT

Syrian air defenses have been deployed to thwart an attack by the Israeli rockets, Syria’s state SANA news agency reported. The bombing is reportedly being carried out by Israeli warplanes from Lebanese airspace.

Syrian air defenses have been engaging missiles that Israeli warplanes are launching from outside the country's territory, SANA reported on Thursday. The bombardment appears to have been going on for hours, with the first missile strikes reported at about 1:30 am Damascus time on Thursday (22:30 GMT).

Early Thursday morning, IDF spokesman Avichay Adraee confirmed that the Israeli army was continuing to hit “Iranian targets” in Syria, warning that any retaliation by Syrian forces would be met with “extreme seriousness.”

SANA has released footage of Syrian air defense systems responding to incoming missiles.

[video]

The Israeli strikes are seen as a continued retaliation to what Israel claims were some 20 rockets launched by Iran’s Quds Force from Syrian territory into the Israeli-occupied part of the Golan Heights earlier in the night. The Israel Defense Forces said its Iron Dome systems intercepted some of the projectiles and the reported attack resulted in no injuries.

Around the same time Syria’s state media reported that Israel shelled the city of Baath in the northern Quneitra governorate.

Tensions were ramped up in the region after US President Donald Trump announced his country’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, a fierce critic of the accord, hailed the decision, which drew sharp condemnation from Europe, Russia, China and other non-signatory countries. 

A day after Trump reneged on the internationally acclaimed agreement, Israel hit a Syrian army position in the Kisweh area south of Damascus.

Israel has been claiming that Iran is setting up bases of operations in Syria in order to stage attacks against the Jewish state. It has launched numerous air strikes against Syrian government-controlled territories, targeting alleged Iranian positions.

The Golan Heights in southwestern Syria have been occupied by Israel since the Six-Day War of 1967 and are internationally recognized as a Syrian territory.

[END REPORT]

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