OK folks, here we go.
We will get sucked into Syria
and we do not have the resources to support it.
More wasted lives and money. Another
excursion with no exit strategy and probably a timeline to allow the bad guys
to plan their worst.
Panetta: US sends forces to Jordan
By LOLITA C. BALDOR and PAULINE JELINEK | Associated
Press 1130-121010
Excerpt from the article http://news.yahoo.com/panetta-us-sends-forces-jordan-131927741.html
BRUSSELS (AP) — The United States has sent
military troops to the Jordan-Syria border to bolster that country's military
capabilities in the event that violence escalates along its border with Syria ,
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Wednesday.
Speaking at a NATO conference of defense ministers in Brussels ,
Panetta said the U.S. has
been working with Jordan to
monitor chemical and biological weapons sites in Syria
and to help Jordan
deal with refugees pouring over the border from Syria .
The troops are also building a headquarters for themselves.
But the revelation of U.S. military personnel so close to
the 19-month-old Syrian conflict suggests an escalation in the U.S. military
involvement in the conflict, even as Washington pushes back on any suggestion
of a direct intervention in Syria.
It also follows several days of shelling between Turkey and
Syria , an
indication that the civil war could spill across Syria 's
borders and become a regional conflict.
"We have a group of our forces there working to help
build a headquarters there and to insure that we make the relationship between
the United States
and Jordan a
strong one so that we can deal with all the possible consequences of what's
happening in Syria ,"
Panetta said.
The development comes with the U.S.
presidential election less than a month away, and at a time when former
Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee, has been criticizing
President Barack Obama's foreign policy, accusing the administration of
embracing too passive a stance in the convulsive Mideast
region.
The defense secretary and other administration officials
have expressed concern about Syrian President Bashar Assad's arsenal of chemical
weapons. Panetta said last week that the United Statesbelieves that while
the weapons are still secure, intelligence suggests the regime might have moved
the weapons to protect them. The Obama administration has said that Assad's use
of chemical weapons would be a "red line" that would change the U.S.
policy of providing only non-lethal aid to the rebels seeking to topple him.
Pentagon press secretary George Little, traveling with
Panetta, said the U.S.
and Jordan agreed that "increased cooperation and more detailed planning
are necessary in order to respond to the severe consequences of the Assad
regime's brutality."
He said the U.S.
has provided medical kits, water tanks, and other forms of humanitarian aid to
help Jordanians assist Syrian refugees fleeing into their country.
Little said the military personnel were there to help Jordan
with the flood of Syrian refugees over its borders and the security of Syria 's
stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons.
"As we've said before, we have been planning for
various contingencies, both unilaterally and with our regional partners,"
Little said in a written statement. "There are various scenarios in which
the Assad regime's reprehensible actions could affect our partners in the
region. For this reason and many others, we are always working on our
contingency planning, for which we consult with our friends."
A U.S.
defense official in Washington
said the forces are made up of 100 military planners and other personnel who
stayed on in Jordan
after attending an annual exercise in May, and several dozen more have flown in
since, operating from a joint U.S.-Jordanian military center north of Amman
that Americans have used for years.
He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not
authorized to talk about the mission on the record.
In Jordan, the biggest problem for now seems to be the
strain put on the country's meager resources by the estimated 200,000 Syrian
refugees who have flooded across the border — the largest fleeing to any
country.
Several dozen refugees in Jordan
rioted in their desert border camp of Zaatari early this month, destroying
tents and medicine and leaving scores of refugee families out in the night
cold.
Jordanian men also are moving the other way across the
border — joining what intelligence officials have estimated to be around 2,000
foreigners fighting alongside Syrian rebels trying to topple Assad. A Jordanian
border guard was wounded after armed men — believed trying to go fight —
exchanged gunfire at the northern frontier.
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