{"id":14646,"date":"2012-12-07T13:31:01","date_gmt":"2012-12-07T20:31:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=14646"},"modified":"2012-12-07T13:31:01","modified_gmt":"2012-12-07T20:31:01","slug":"us-uk-fr-ready-to-invade-syria-within-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=14646","title":{"rendered":"US, UK, FR ready to invade Syria “within days”"},"content":{"rendered":"

US tightens military noose around Syria<\/strong>
\nBy Bill Van Auken – 7 December 2012 – WSWS<\/p>\n

Amid an escalating drumbeat about a supposed threat that Syria\u2019s government is preparing to use chemical weapons against its own people, Washington has deployed a naval armada off the country\u2019s coast.<\/p>\n

The USS Eisenhower carrier strike group was sent through the Suez Canal from its deployment in the Persian Gulf earlier this week and has reportedly arrived in the Mediterranean near Syrian shores. The deployment joins that of an amphibious battle group already present in the eastern Mediterranean, consisting of the USS Iwo Jima, the USS New York and the USS Gunston Hall, which together carry a contingent of 2,500 US Marines.<\/p>\n

Between the two naval forces, Washington now has 17 warships, 70 fighter-bombers and 10,000 military personnel within close striking distance of Syria. This is in addition to the Air Force\u2019s 39th Air Base Wing stationed at the Incirlik base in Turkey together with tens of thousands of US ground troops deployed in Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.<\/p>\n

Citing US military sources, the Times of London reported Wednesday that Washington is ready to launch a military attack on Syria \u201cwithin days.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt won\u2019t require major movement to make action happen,\u201d an unnamed US official told the British newspaper. \u201cThe muscle is already there to be flexed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pentagon sources have suggested that an intervention carried out on the pretext of securing Syria\u2019s chemical weapons would require some 75,000 troops.<\/p>\n

In a further threat of direct US-NATO intervention, NATO governments are moving ahead to implement Tuesday\u2019s decision of the NATO foreign ministers conference to deploy Patriot missile batteries on Turkey\u2019s border with Syria. Germany\u2019s defense and foreign ministers announced a decision to deploy some 400 German troops on the border. Similar detachments will also be sent by the US and the Netherlands.<\/p>\n

While Turkey claimed it needed the missiles to defend itself from a supposed threat that Syria would fire missiles carrying chemical weapons towards its border, the Patriot batteries could also be used to impose a de facto \u201cno-fly zone\u201d over northern Syria, allowing the US-backed \u201crebels\u201d to consolidate control over territory and creating the conditions for the installation of a Western-backed government on Syrian soil.<\/p>\n

US officials have reiterated threats made by President Barack Obama and others in the administration about the government of President Bashar al-Assad crossing a \u201cred line\u201d and facing military action if it uses chemical weapons. …more<\/a><\/p>\n

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US tightens military noose around Syria By Bill Van Auken – 7 December 2012 – WSWS Amid an escalating drumbeat about a supposed threat that Syria\u2019s government is preparing to use chemical weapons against its own people, Washington has deployed a naval armada off the country\u2019s coast. The USS Eisenhower carrier strike group was sent more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247],"tags":[2000],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14646"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14646"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14647,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14646\/revisions\/14647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}