The Cambodian Parallel

The media - and the entire left, really - have been wallowing in supposed parallels with Vietnam since long before the first Green Beret landed in Afghanistan.

There are two legitimate ones that the left media misses.

The first - that the current action in Fallujah and the Sunni Triangle may be a parallel with the Tet Offensive in the sense that it shows some signs of a guerrilla movement shooting its bolt in an attack with more political and P.R. than military purpose.

The other? This enemy, like the Viet Cong and the NVA, has allies that are providing a safe haven across a border that is currently inviolate:

The United States has been fighting what officials term a silent war with Syria which killed at least five soldiers over the weekend.
U.S. officials said U.S. Marines have deployed along the Syrian border to stop the flow of insurgents and equipment to Iraq. They said Marines have engaged with both Sunni insurgents as well as some Syrian security personnel along the border in clashes that have intensified over the last few weeks.
The U.S. military presence – increased by more than a third over the last two months – was said to be focused on the western Iraqi towns of Al Qaim and Qusaybah, regarded as key points in the smuggling of insurgents and weapons from Syria to Iraq.

How bad are the provocations? Apparently very much so.

The border is no less porous than that of Cambodia was, 35 years ago:

"It is a large border and at nighttime there's a lot of wadis and places where individuals can go in and work their way across," Sattler said. "But once they get across they still have a vast portion of desert to come through, and we constantly patrol that to either A. deter them because we are out there in such force, or B. catch them and go ahead and bring them to justice."

U.S. officials said that despite numerous warnings Syria continues to allow Al Qaida-aligned insurgents to enter Iraq. The officials said Syrian border guards have been bribed to ignore the infiltration of insurgents into Iraq.

So far, they said, the Syrian military has not engaged the U.S. Marines along the Iraqi-Syrian border. But they said in some cases Syrian border guards were involved in clashes between insurgents and U.S. troops. They did not report casualties among the Syrian guards.

So on the one hand, there is talk of the waxing power of the moderates in totalitarian Syria. On the other, there are rumors that Syrian special forces were involved in the massacre in Fallujah two weeks ago.

Big difference with Cambodia - I think (or merely hope) our government will have the nerve and will to engage Syria, even liberate it, should the provocations grow any more brazen.

How far on the block do they want to put their heads?

Posted by Mitch at April 19, 2004 05:13 PM