An interesting discussion has popped up over that bombing of a nuclear target in Syria by Israel. One instance of this was at Hot Air:
Why did Israel hit the reactor now if they were comfortable enough with it for four years? The likely answer lies in this WaPo report from a few days after the airstrike. To borrow a phrase, strange things were afoot at the Circle K:
[A] prominent U.S. expert on the Middle East, who has interviewed Israeli participants in a mysterious raid over Syria last week, reported that the attack appears to have been linked to the arrival three days earlier of a ship carrying material from North Korea labeled as cement…
The expert said it is not clear what the ship was carrying, but the emerging consensus in Israel was that it delivered nuclear equipment. The ship arrived Sept. 3 in the Syrian port of Tartus; the attack occurred Sept. 6 under such strict operational security that the pilots flying air cover for the attack aircraft did not know details of the mission. The pilots who conducted the attack were briefed only after they were in the air, he said.
Sounds like, with the shell of the reactor already long in place, they were finally ready to take “the next step,” forced perhaps by the fact that North Korea had made a deal with the west to denuclearize and needed to unload some of its infrastructure.
And of course the WaPo tried to lay some scuzz on GWB:
The long genesis is likely to raise questions about whether the Bush administration overlooked a nascent atomic threat in Syria while planning and executing a war in Iraq, which was later found to have no active nuclear program.
So, in short, what happened here is the west didn’t strike until such time as the building actually represented a threat. Isn’t that how it’s supposed to work, WaPo?
And by the way, this situation says much to the critics of John Bolton,as Atlas Shrugs explains:
“Of course, back in 2003, John Bolton raised the specter of Syria developing nukes, but was dismissed by some in the intelligence community.
Apparently, he was right all along. The progress of the site in late 2003 also raises new questions about a disagreement at the time between intelligence analysts and John R. Bolton, then the State Department’s top arms control official.”
It strikes me that what we’re really seeing, here is a collection of second-guessing on the part of the press… and the leftie blogs… neither of which would mind seeing the Republican President fail… and the country with it… being proven wrong. The leftie blogs are alternately scrambling to cover their original estimates of the situation, which are now being proven unquestionably incorrect… or are being silent as the grave about it all. The reaction of the press isn’t quite so advanced… they’re still trying to blame Bush based on their mis perceptions of events. Neither is out of the norm for this situation.
But you know… you’d think eventually, the message would sink in that perhaps what we’ve been doing, really WAS the best approach, all along.
Oh, and one more thing, here:
We’re seeing occasional chatter about what happened to the wreckage of the place they bombed… Well, I have a few ideas about that.
Look close again at the before and after shot we posted here a week or so ago:
If you zoom up on this thing a bit, you’ll note what looks to be a vehicle of some sort, parked in the middle of where the building used to be. Note also, the freshly groomed appearance of the earth over the site.
Note, also, the road that appears to have been hastily built from the road in the lower right of the second shot, toward the installation. Further, note the increased depth of the wheel tracks in that lower right quadrant, indicating some seriously heavy construction equipment. Finally, note that some of the areas below the installation are covered with fresh earth in the second photo. Makes sense that the one vehicle in the middle of the site is a grader, and that what is left of the building is buried.
Being a nuke installation, I don’t doubt that much of the installation was buried to begin with, as a natural protection against radiation. Once the place was bombed, thereby, the simplest way to get it to the condition we see it in now, would be to simply bring in some dirt and bury the place, and grade the surface. Bingo… it was never there.
Granted, some speculation on my part, but it fits with what we see.
Tags: attack, BitsBlog, BitsBlog, BO, Bush, Hot Air, Iraq, Israel, Men, Republican, Rove, State Department, Syria, UN, W, WaPo, WHAT biased press?
