Obama's Syrian Red Line

[cal828]

Originally Posted by bigrun

dan, you are a history buff...maybe i have my countries confused but i seem to recall some time back the Syrian gov't was referred to as the Western backed gov't of Syria..no?

Not sure how far back you have to go for friendly relations between the US and Syria. We were actually in a brief conflict with them between 1983 and 1984. You may remember this. This was when Jessie Jackson went to Syria to obtain the release of the young aviator Robert O. Goodman. He was shot down over Lebanon and captured by the Syrians and held by them for about a month until Jackson and others got him released.

Might be mistaken, but I think the Syrians did contribute a token force to armies opposed to Saddam in Desert Storm. Don't really think that should be construed as "pro-western." I think Saddam was just universally despised. Even by other Arabs.