Subtle Diplomacy

Personally, I prefer the not so subtle kind. Honey, let's pass on the summer home this year. You know how I hate those pesky fly ... bys.

Israeli warplanes buzzed the summer residence of Syrian President Bashar Assad early Wednesday, military officials said, in a message aimed at pressuring the Syrian leader to win the release of a captured Israeli soldier.

The officials said on condition of anonymity that the fighter jets flew over Assad's palace in a low-altitude overnight raid near the Mediterranean port city of Latakia in northwestern Syria. Israeli television reports said four planes were involved, and Assad was home at the time.

Do you think it would help if we put in some of those citranella torches?

Heavens, no, dear ... I don't think anything involving light right now is a good idea.

Can you imagine? Ah ... it's so hard to get away when you're a terror sponsoring despot these days.

Comments

[rwilymz]

cnn.com has this newsflash currently:

"Syria says its air defenses fired at Israeli jets flying over the president's house, forcing them to flee, The Associated Press reports."

Perspective is a funny thing...

[Sgt. York]

Syria recently purchased 20 batteries of Russian SA-18 surface-to-air missles for $70-million to prevent just this sort of thing. Russia has been making a lot of money selling air-defense systems and we have yet to see a system that actually works.

In Iran, the Russians installed advanced radar systems at the Bushehr nuclear reactor and at the Isfahan uranium enrichment plant. The Iranians, like the Syrians, rely on point-defense of key locations using surface-to-air missile batteries purchased from the Russians. In a US attack on Iran these systems would likely be equally poor performers.

The tactical lesson to be learned is that true 'air-defense' means having a large Air Force with modern fighter jets and professional pilots. Ground-based radars and surface-to-air missle systems just don't work in real-world situations.

[Rick]

York are you working for the dark side now?

[Sgt. York]

Just observing.