Another Escalation: US Freezes Diplomatic Relations With Syria, Orders Non-US Personnel To Leave Country

Putin 2 - Obama 0, which means it is time to go back to the one place where it all started last year, and where Putin had his most resounding victory over the US foreign policy apparatus (at least until the Ukraine, where we trampled not only over Obama's red line... again... but where nobody quite explained the "costs" to the ex-KGB leader): Syria.  Sure enough, with the US unable to respond in Crimea, has decided to take its fight back to where Europe's natgas reliance on Gazprom product was first truly exposed.

BREAKING: US freezes diplomatic, consular relations with Syria; Orders non-US personnel to leave country.

— The Associated Press (@AP) March 18, 2014

The US can order non-US personnel around? More from Reuters:

• U.S.
  IMMEDIATELY SUSPENDS OPERATIONS OF SYRIAN EMBASSY IN WASHINGTON, AS
  WELL AS HONORARY CONSULATES IN MICHIGAN AND TEXAS - STATE DEPARTMENT
• U.S.
  SPECIAL ENVOY FOR SYRIA SAYS 'UNACCEPTABLE' FOR INDIVIDUALS APPOINTED
  BY ASSAD REGIME TO CONDUCT DIPLOMATIC, CONSULAR OPERATIONS IN U.S.

Regardless, if the bloodless Russian annexation of Crimea wasn't enough to push the S&P to new all time highs, this surely will.

Comments

[sudzee]

Text message:

WH to FED:

DoD needs a couple trillion. Print immediately and sell quick.

FED to WH:

Sell to WHO, sorry WHOM.

WH to FED:

You didn't have to Yellen, you know.

[KCMLO]

OUCH!  Finally we do something to Syria with some real teeth (suspend their honorary embassies in Michigan and Texas).  Finally we strike back!

[NoTTD]

Translation:  ObamaCare is major trainwreck which needs to get off the front pages.   Let's bomb some brown people.

[yogibear]

Who cares, stocks keep going up.

[homiegot]

Fuck yeah, America!

[kchrisc]

Translation: Israel and the Zionists will get what they want, no matter who it hurts.

[undertowed]

Oh yeah. That'll teach 'em!

[Emergency Ward]

"Speaking from the control room of his wife's luxury yacht, Secretary of State John Kerry says he agrees with President Obama that the promised War Department budget cuts will have to be scrapped due to global military contingencies."

[kchrisc]

Correction: John Kohn aka John Kerry

http://judaism.about.com/od/jewishgenealogy/a/jewpas_kerry.htm

[Element]

Ah, and here it is, the pretext from Israel:

--

NOW/AFP
 
March 18, 2014
 
JERUSALEM - Four Israeli soldiers were wounded by a roadside bomb on the occupied Golan Heights Tuesday, prompting artillery fire into Syria and a sharp warning that Israel would act forcefully to defend itself.
 
The army said one of the soldiers was severely wounded in what was the third such incident in two weeks along Israel's northern frontier, prompting a blunt warning from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
 
"Recently the border with Syria has filled with jihadists and Hezbollah elements, which represents a new threat for the state of Israel," he said, referring to Lebanon's powerful Shiite movement, which is fighting alongside Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's troops.
 
Netanyahu said the ceasefire line in the Golan had remained largely calm, despite the three-year civil war raging in Syria, but that Israel would not hesitate to act in self-defense.
 
"We will act forcefully to preserve Israel's security," he warned.
 
Although there was no immediate claim of responsibility, analysts pointed to similarities with an explosion last week targeting troops along the Lebanese border, which was blamed on Hezbollah, and a similar attempt in the Golan on March 5.
 
An Israeli security source said Tuesday's incident targeted a patrol driving along the ceasefire line near the Druze town of Majdal Shams.
 
"The soldiers were in a jeep near the fence and they saw something suspicious, so they got out and that's when the device went off," the source told AFP.
 
The Israeli army confirmed four soldiers had been wounded by an explosive device, prompting troops to open fire on Syrian military positions.
 
"We view the Syrian army as responsible for this incident... this indicates our response to the attack," military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner told reporters.
 
The incident came four days after the blast targeting Israeli troops on the Lebanese border, very close to Syria, which prompted Israel to shell Hezbollah positions over the border.
 
A Lebanese security source said 10 Israeli rockets had slammed into an uninhabited border area.
 
On March 5, the Israeli army said troops on the Golan had opened fire on Hezbollah members as they tried to plant a bomb near the ceasefire line. It claimed to have struck the two fighters but did not say what weapon it used or whether they died.
 
Hezbollah did not comment on the incident.
 
Analysts linked the escalation in border tensions to an air strike on February 24 which targeted a Hezbollah position in Lebanon, close to the Syrian border, which the Shiite group blamed on Israel.
 
If confirmed, it would be the first Israeli attack against Hezbollah inside Lebanon since the 2006 war, which killed more than 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and some 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers.
 
Hezbollah has vowed to respond to the air strike.
 
"Israel has assessed that Hezbollah would attempt to find a way to express its displeasure, to put it mildly," wrote defense expert Alex Fishman in Israel's Yediot Aharonot newspaper earlier this week.
 
He said last week's attack was "a message" to Israel that it could not attack Hezbollah positions with impunity, saying: "You overdid it. When you bomb our weapons convoys in Syria, you are dealing with the Syrians. In Lebanon, you're dealing with us."
 
https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/nowsyrialatestnews/539709-blast-in-golan-wou...

This is how it's done when you want to start a war:

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20010430/northwoods.pdf

[Legolas]

FFE coming in 3.......2.......1..

[Son of Captain Nemo]

Well look at all the new friends Russia just made with "stuff" that is backed by more than the full faith and credit of the most corrupt set of government(s) in history?

Time to invest in the new Russia, cause the mashugana in Tel Aviv and abroad along with their wahabbi and latest "neo-nazi" friends may have bitten off way more than they could chew!

[Frank N. Beans]

is this one of them thar exekutiv orders or jus' a regular order??   Us hicks wanna know. 

[homiegot]

This can't be constructive.

[nowhereman]

I've been perusing the internet, and reading comments on stories from various news organizations, and I'm encouraged to find that many more people are questioning main stream media reports.  I think this is a good sign.

One thing that disturbed me though, was I made a comment on Naked Capitalism this morning slightly critical of a story on Ukraine and they did not print it.  They are becoming a very closed shop over there.

[Element]

They have been for a looong time. I don't even bother with them anymore.

[Ifigenia]

the academic sholars would have to leave too? Pity, they still have a lot of academic research to do in byology and chemist

[First There Is ...]

With Operation Ukrainian Subjegation in shambles Syria is clearly back in play as the Euro trash looks to secure a more "compliant" Syrian dictator who will jump at the chance to allow Halliburton et al to construct their wet dream pipeline. Now several fronts are open as Russia is being harangued from the South and West. And surely the CIA has opened back channels to the Dagestanis, Chechans, Georgians and anyone else willing to be a nuisance to the lumbering bear.