Talk Of Strike On Syria Moves From 'Will It Happen?' To When

[SajeevJino]

Can someone explain why the Israelis chose to attack a shipment of S-125 missiles? The SA-3 has been around for years and its hardly a game changer. Why risk retaliation and a widening of the conflict to hit something as mundane as a 1960s era SAM delivery?

Unless the target wasn't really the S-125 and something else entirely?

Who Know which one was the Target ..Till now we have Info Israel carried attack inside Syria ..Whit House Told ..any more informations ...!!!!

[Officer of Engineers]

Can someone explain why the Israelis chose to attack a shipment of S-125 missiles? The SA-3 has been around for years and its hardly a game changer. Why risk retaliation and a widening of the conflict to hit something as mundane as a 1960s era SAM delivery?

Unless the target wasn't really the S-125 and something else entirely?

Hezbollah can shut down Israeli airports.

[JAD_333]

The prudent course is to confirm nothing rather than publicly box Assad into a corner which increases internal demands for retaliation...

Point taken. I would like to think that the US had a 'good' reason for spilling the beans. It could be to reassure the Russians who likely believe they a tacit understanding with the US as part of the chemical weapon disposal deal not to attack Syria while the disposal was underway.





[/quote]For inviting escalation? Certainly...

This White House doesn't seem able to grasp basic Middle East strategics.[/QUOTE]


A more graphic way to put it was this from the Guardian:

According to Israeli media reports, the US statement had caused "senior officials in Jerusalem to tear out their hair".

[chakos]

Hezbollah can shut down Israeli airports.

Technically if placed on the Israeli-Lebanese border a battery of SA-3 missiles MIGHT be able to threaten Haifa but the damned things are semi mobile to say the least. They would also be using radars and fire control equipment whose signatures would be known by the any semi competent western military since before the time you wore the uniform. The moment one of those radars lit up the IAF would have it stomped... it would be much easier to supply Hezbollah with modern IR manpads if terrorism was the objective.

I don't buy it, i'm of the opinion the target was far juicer although for obvious reasons saying it was a S-125 shipment sounds reasonable to most and makes for a good cover.

[Officer of Engineers]

It takes more than a day to mount a sortie, especially when you're not looking.

[Josh]

It takes more than a day to mount a sortie, especially when you're not looking.

But not an artillery strike, depending on how close to the border we're talking. That said any medium range or strategic SAM is a total waste for Hez and they would know that. Something else was blown up, and we'll never know what.

[Josh]

Sorry, I can't seem to find a post edit feature, so another post. The SA-3's likely weren't the real target, just something that was neutralized as part of the strike. I suspect some other building or structure also blew up and that the report is differentiating from a storage warehouse of SA-3s and an active, or at least set up, SA-3 air defense site nominally defending the base that was attacked.