Syria and Iraq

A couple months ago the CIA said it was pulling entirely out of Iraq. Since then jihadist violence has spiked in the desert country, this means the CIA was telling the truth and it really has pulled out of Iraq. At the time this announcement was made I speculated that the Iraqi CIA officers would mostly go to Afghanistan. I seem to be wrong with my first guess. It now seems more likely that the Iraqi CIA contingent is focused on Syria and letting the bad guys run rampant in Iraq.

The reason I think this is because Al-Qaeda in Iraq has taken the lead in injecting jihadist fighters into the Syrian Civil War. This means CIA operatives with experience fighting AQII in Iraq are the best qualified to fight AQII in Syria. And AQII has been mostly shut down in Syria. After making a big splash, suicide (Al-Qaeda style) attacks are way down in Syria.

But suicide attacks are way up in Iraq. The CIA can't be everywhere so it is making a trade-off.

Meanwhile, in the primary war zone, Syria has for three days in a row buzzed the Turkish border with helicopters, mostly troop transporters, probably stuffed with convicts in military uniforms. Each time Syria buzzes the Turkish border, the Turkish Air Force scrambles fighter jets, who line up to shoot down the Syrian helicopters. So far the Turks have not yet fired because the Syrian choppers are turning around once they are threatened by the Turkish Air Force.

While all this is going on Iran is test firing missiles designed to hit Israel and beating its chest with anti-Israeli rhetoric.

Then Syrian dictator Assad says the Turkish F4 his people shot down earlier this week looked like an Israeli fighter on Syrian radar screens. They could practically see Stars of Davids on those screens, the Israeli vibe was that strong from the Turkish fighter.