For the fifth straight day, Turkey and Syria have exchanged artillery fire all along their common border.
That is worrisome.
Is it the Syrian rebels trying to draw Ankara into the civil war?
Maybe.
Damascus was certainly quick to apologize, even if they could not reign in their own gunnery over the last five days.
Either The Supreme Opthalmalocrat is in some sort of desperate fight up by his Turkish border one in which he dare not decline the use of artillery or his own generals are trying to set up a showdown with Ankara that'll give them the impetus and excuse to stage a coup and install a new "government of conciliation."
Keep in mind Assad has already survived one "Operation Valkyrie" style attempt on his life, who knows what is in play at the moment behind closed doors?
Myself?
I suspect the rebels are trying to stir Turkey to action...Assad's legions won't last long against a determined assault from without.
He has to know that.
The straw that stirs the drink there is Turkey's membership in NATO at some point the refugee crisis the unstable border situation and the artillery duelsmight prompt full intervention from that venerable military alliance.
I just know somewhere in a secure meeting room in Brussels there are a few aging tank generals just kvelling at the thought one last almighty "Operation Torch" with armored divisions storming down the road to Damascus under a vast cloud of NATO air cover.
I know the current situation doesn't sound like much to the American bystander, but it was naught but a collection of artillery duels along the Amur-Ussuri River in the summer of 1969 that brought the USSR and the People's Republic of China to the brink of nuclear war.
