The New Cold War Grows a Little Hotter
Posted at 9:02 am on February 24, 2018 by davenj1 While the media obsessed over the Rob Porter scandal which was interrupted by a school shooting in Florida that left 17 dead, little has been mentioned here of elsewhere about two recent events in the Middle East (exception: Redstate’s streiff has covered the two incidents). But, there is a third interesting development that has come to the forefront that bears mentioning.
The first incident involves an Israeli airstrike on Syrian air defense and artillery installations in that country. This strike was precipitated when what is believed to be an Iranian-made drone flew into Israeli airspace. Rumor has it that they allowed it to enter their airspace so that they can recover the remains to determine if it was a case of reverse engineering of an American drone shot down over Iran. Initial reports are that the Iranian drone had no stealth capabilities. That American drone was shot down in 2011 and the Obama administration laughably asked that Iran kindly return it.
All sides have a different take on what happened as Syria rejoiced that they shot down an Israeli fighter jet (they did, but the pilot ejected and lived and plane crashed in Israeli territory). However, it appears that the Israeli strike was intense and inflicted some serious damage on Syrian air defense capabilities in southern Syria closest to Israel and the Golan Heights. It was also reported that Israel notified Russia regarding the airstrike so as not to target any Russian forces assisting the Syrian military in the area.
<..snip..>
https://www.redstate.com/davenj1/2018/02/24/new-cold-war-grows-little-hotter/
