"没有埃及就无法在中东发动战争，没有叙利亚就无法实现和平。"——亨利·A·基辛格 2008年10月26日，四架美国直升机飞越

"You can't make war in the Middle East without Egypt and you can't make peace without Syria.” -- Henry A. Kissinger On October 26 2008, four U.S. helicopters flew 8

公里进入叙利亚，袭击了叙利亚东部的一处农场建筑群。这次由美国特种部队领导的行动造成八人死亡，其中包括四名儿童，以及基地组织成员阿布·加迪亚。袭击发生后，叙利亚政权立即强烈谴责此次袭击侵犯了其主权，并采取了一系列报复性措施以示抗议。这些措施包括将叙利亚军队撤离伊拉克边境、动员民众宣泄对美国的愤怒、关闭美国学校和美国文化中心。此外，阿萨德政权还要求美方正式道歉并对受害者予以赔偿。然而，抛开激烈的言辞不谈，新的细节已经浮现，表明叙利亚与此次袭击存在共谋。

kilometres into Syria from Iraq, and attacked a farm compound in Eastern Syriaxi. The operation led by US Special Forces killed eight people including four children and Al Qaida operative Abu Ghadiya. Immediately after the raid, the Syrian regime vehemently denounced the attack as a violation of its sovereignty and carried out a series of retaliatory measures in protest. This included the removal of Syrian troops from the Iraqi border, mobilization of crowds to vent anger against America, closure of the American school and the US cultural centre. Additionally, Al-Assad’ s regime demanded an official apology and compensation for the victims. However, beyond the fiery rhetoric, new details have emerged that suggest Syria’ s complicity in the attack.

2008年11月2日，英国报纸《泰晤士报》披露，叙利亚已批准此次突袭行动得以进行；行动失手后，叙利亚臭名昭著的秘密情报机构涌入该地区收拾残局，并封住当地村民的嘴。该报还透露，那处农场地带是圣战战士的天堂，他们可以自由地在那里训练，并往来于伊拉克边境两侧。其中有些人说话带着浓重的伊拉克口音。这些披露并不新鲜，只是证实了长期以来的怀疑：叙利亚正在暗中协助美国稳定伊拉克局势。

On November 2 2008, the English newspaper, The Times revealed that Syria had given permission for the raid to go ahead and when the operation was bungled, Syria’ s notorious secret intelligence services flooded the region to clear up the mess and muzzle local villagers. The paper further disclosed that the farm area was a heaven for jihadi fighters who were free to train and move across the Iraqi border. Some spoke with thick Iraqi accents. The revelations are not new and confirm long standing suspicions that Syria is covertly assisting America to stabilize Iraq.

萨达姆政权垮台后，许多伊拉克人逃离伊拉克，前往叙利亚寻求庇护。目前他们的人数约为150万。在美国的支持下，叙利亚设立了武装训练营，招募并训练伊拉克难民，使其成为战斗人员，其明确目的是渗透伊拉克抵抗力量、向美国官员提供实时情报，并在伊拉克境内执行秘密行动，尤其是那些煽动教派分裂的行动。叙利亚还沿与伊拉克接壤的边境每隔4公里设立了检查站。通过这些努力，叙利亚政权得以监视并追踪穿越边境的圣战战士。这一安排导致数千名独立抵抗战士被捕，以及若干高价值目标被消灭，最近的一名是阿布·加迪亚。

After the fall of Saddam, many Iraqis fled Iraq and sought refuge in Syria. At present their numbers stand at approximately 1.5 million. Under American auspices, Syria set up militant training camps to recruit and train the Iraqi refugees into fighters with the explicit purpose of infiltrating the Iraqi resistance, providing real-time intelligence to US officials, and executing covert operations in Iraq, especially those that encourage sectarian discord. Syria also established checkpoints every 4 kilometres along the border that abuts Iraq. Through such endeavours the Syrian regime was able to monitor and keep track of jihadi fighters moving across the border. This arrangement resulted in the arrest of several thousand independent resistance fighters as well as the elimination of several high value targets— latest addition being Abu Ghadiya.

随后，叙利亚在一定程度上稳定了伊拉克的西部边境，并帮助美国控制该地区。为了给伊拉克奄奄一息的亲美政府提供更大的政治合法性，叙利亚最近恢复了外交关系，并在26年来首次向巴格达派遣了大使。由此不难理解，9月份，伊拉克总统贾拉勒·塔拉巴尼对他的主人、美国总统乔治·布什说，叙利亚已不再对伊拉克的安全构成问题。那么，如果叙利亚没有构成威胁，美国为何还要发动这次突袭呢？

Subsequently, Syria was able to some extent pacify Iraq’ s western border and aid America’ s control over the area. To provide greater political legitimacy to Iraq’ s ailing pro- American government; Syria recently normalized diplomatic ties and sent its first ambassador to Baghdad in 26 years. Not surprisingly then, that in September Jalal Talabani, Iraq's president, told his master US President George Bush that Syria no longer posed a problem to Iraqi security. So if Syria posed no threat then why did the US conduct the raid?

看来，此次袭击的时机是为了实现三个目标。第一，美国获得了逮捕阿布·加迪亚的宝贵情报。几周前，伊拉克境内基地组织战斗人员的据点巴古巴（Baquba）有数名武装分子被捕，从他们那里获得的情报促成了此次突袭。第二，叙利亚边境部队的撤离正帮助美国向伊拉克人施压，迫使其签署一项新的安全协议，使美国军队在2011年之前仍以正式身份留驻伊拉克。第三，美国利用此次突袭宣布其大为扩展的先发制人战争理论。

It appears that the timing of the attack was meant to achieve three objectives. First, America was presented with valuable information to apprehend Abu Ghadiya. A few weeks before, several militants were captured in Baquba a base for Al-Qaida fighters in Iraq and information gained from them prompted the raid. Second, the removal of Syrian border troops is helping America pressurize the Iraqis to sign up to a new security pact that will keep US forces formally in Iraq till 2011. Third, America exploited the raid to announce its much expanded pre-emptive war doctrine.

10月28日，美国国防部长罗伯特·盖茨在卡内基国际和平基金会（CEIP）宣布："美国将追究任何支持或协助恐怖分子获取或使用大规模杀伤性武器的国家、恐怖组织、其他非国家行为体或个人的全部责任。"从驻扎在伊拉克和阿富汗的美军对叙利亚和巴基斯坦发动的跨境袭击，正是这一思路的体现。

On October 28 at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP), US Defence Secretary Robert Gates declared that "the US will hold any state, terrorist group, or other non-state actor or individual fully accountable for supporting or enabling terrorist efforts to obtain or use weapons of mass destruction.” The crossborder raids against Syria and Pakistan from US forces stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan is a manifestation of this strand of thinking.

叙利亚与美国的勾结不仅限于伊拉克，还延伸到黎巴嫩和巴勒斯坦。大马士革对黎巴嫩亲叙派系的支持，以及叙利亚向以色列伸出的和平橄榄枝，都是为了便利美国对该地区的扼制。

Syria’ s collusion with America is not just limited to Iraq but extends to Lebanon and Palestine. Damascus’ s support of pro-Syrian factions in Lebanon and Syria’ s peace overtures to Israel are designed to facilitate America’ s stranglehold over the region.

2008年11月3日

November 3, 2008