The IDF today lifted censorship on the IAF air strike in Syria from over 3 weeks ago, following Syrian President Bashar “Dorktator” Assad’s confirmation of the strike in a BBC interview.
Assad told the BBC that Israeli warplanes attacked an unused military building, the first time Syria officially acknowledged an air raid had taken place.
Assad charged that the Israeli airstrike showed that Israel is not interested in making peace. Israel cannot talk about peace and carry out their attacks against a neighboring country, he said.
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Previously, Syrian officials had said only that the Israeli warplanes entered the country’s airspace, came under fire from anti-aircraft defenses, and dropped munitions and fuel tanks over northeastern Syria to lighten their loads while they fled.
What Dorky did not reveal in his BBC interview is the likely fact that his country’s air defense systems are about as trustworthy as the Syrians themselves.
The September 6 Israeli air raid in Syria has been a major setback for Russian arms sales. The Syrians had invested heavily in new Russian air defense systems, and the Israelis apparently brushed right by them. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Russians have been trying to rehabilitate the reputation of their weapons. Throughout the Cold War, whenever Russian and Western (especially American) weapons met on the battlefield, the Russians lost. The Soviets tried to compete on price, but even “free” was not low enough for many countries. Using Soviet weapons came to be seen as a sure ticket to battlefield defeat.
Meanwhile, while the Syrian’s weapon systems might seem retarded, ours are becoming more lizarded.
