Did The Bushies and Neocons Want Israel to Strike Syria (If Not Also Iran)? The Answer is Yes.

[Ed. note: Update: From Think Progress, says a Fox military analyst on Syria: "We can talk to them when we line them up and kill them."...Hunt went on to argue that America should “absolutely, 100 percent” seek regime change in both Syria and Iran if they’re “not going to cooperate." Nice. Real nice. And this is exactly one of the big reasons why the U.S. isn't safe.]

From the Christian Science Monitor, and it's just awful. If it's true that Israel was the party to say "no way", then I applaud them for their reticence. However, considering Israel has often tried to bait the U.S. into military action which is not in this country's best interests, I find myself a little dubious. As you'll see, this piece references the Jerusalem Post piece from which we first got word that the Israel-Hezbollah-Lebanon mess was intended by many to be far bloodier.

Big snip:

The White House, and in particular White House advisors who belong to the neoconservative movement, allegedly encouraged Israel to attack Syria as an expansion of its action against Hizbullah, in Lebanon. The progressive opinion and news site ConsortiumNews.com reported Monday that Israeli sources say Israel's "leadership balked at the scheme."

One Israeli source said [US President George] Bush's interest in spreading the war to Syria was considered "nuts" by some senior Israeli officials, although Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has generally shared Bush's hard-line strategy against Islamic militants.

After rebuffing Bush's suggestion about attacking Syria, the Israeli government settled on a strategy of mounting a major assault in southern Lebanon aimed at rooting out Hizbullah guerrillas who have been firing Katyusha rockets into northern Israel.

In a July 30 story about Israel being prepared for a possible attack by Syria in response to its attacks in Lebanon, The Jerusalem Post noted the White House interest.

The IDF [Israel Defense Forces] was also concerned about a possible Syrian attack in response to the ongoing IDF operations in Lebanon. It was also known that Syria had increased its alert out of fear in Damascus that Israel might attack.

Defense officials told the Post last week that they were receiving indications from the US that America would be interested in seeing Israel attack Syria.

Neoconservatives, or 'neocons,' believe that the United States should not be ashamed to use its unrivaled military power to promote its values around the world. Several prominent neocon columnists have recently written about the need for Israel to take the current conflict beyond Lebanon to include the countries they consider to be Hizbullah's main backers – Iran and Syria.