ABC News illustrationOkay, ABC News has confirmed it was a nuclear facility, and the Israeli strike was put on hold for over a month while a high level debate raged about the accuracy of the intelligence and the wisdom or justification for the proposed strike, and the effect it would have on regional stability.
Finally, fearing that the story was about to be leaked, the Israelis acted in their own interest, seeing how the U.S. wasn’t going to. Good for them.
One thing that had American official so baffled was evidence that this facility had existed for a very long time, possibly even years. How was it possible that our intelligence assets had missed this developmentment?
Hmmm. Could it be that our intelligence assets were too busy fighting "out nation's enemies" in the Bush administration to actually do their jobs?
Ed Morrissey at Captain's Quarters had this to say:
The US opposed the raid up to the moment it occurred, afraid of destabilizing the region. Israel, more worried about the consequences of a nuclear Syria -- something that should worry us as well -- simply ignored Washington after weeks of argument and acted in its own self-interest.
And note that Syria has not lifted a finger in retaliation. Assad knows well that Israel would annihilate his forces in a straight-up fight, and the raid confirmed it. They had to know that Israel would attack that facility if they discovered it, and Syria had to have some defense ready against it. In the event, Israel flew unmolested across the widest part of their airspace, devastated their facility, and flew home as if on an El Al jaunt.
More commentary here at Meryl Yourish.
