From military guy:
Your concerns regarding Syrian infiltrators are exactly why we need more troops on the ground, so that we can intercept (and, if needed, kill or capture) these bravos from Syria. I know they are gnashing their teeth at the Pentagon, and the logisitics will be a nightmare… but it’s time to consider calling up the National Guard combat brigades to make ready to take on the rear echelon security jobs and get the regulars into Baghdad and on the borders.
The surest sign for me that the plan called for a very short, sharp campaign is that unlike in Desert Shield/Storm – we haven’t called up any of the Guard combat units.
I don’t have an inside picture, and it really could collapse quite quickly in Baghdad, but to me, prudence would initiate the call-up of a couple of the brigades. It would serve two purposes – it would show we’re in it for the long haul, and it would also actually serve to help Rumsfeld in his ‘Transformation’ battle – i.e., that the guard heavy brigades can take up the slack in armored forces that Rumsfeld wants to slash from the active force. Shoot – the war is starting to look like a scenario you would design to test and prove the theory.
In this one, however, I think we’re going to go soft and try to do this cheap, which is a mistake in my reading of history – meaning we’ll be playing catch-up.
Of course, even more worrying is the idea floating about that Saddam pushed his stuff to Syria for safekeeping. That is a horse of a completely different color – and we have Chirac, Schroeder, and Blix to thank for that. If Osama is in fact the anarchist who blew up the world, amazing ain’t it that the French are at the heart of the matter, again. Mincing little weasels.