Syria being naughty; M1A2 SEP nails moving T-72 at 8.7km

[akd]

DAMASCUS (Reuters) -

Syria will keep supporting Hamas and Hizbollah despite U.S. threats to impose more sanctions on it, a government newspaper said on Thursday.

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U.S. Secretary of State

Condoleezza Rice threatened this week to toughen sanctions Washington imposed on Syria in 2004, mainly because of its support for the two movements, which Washington regards as "terrorist organizations."

"Syria is more determined to stand by the resistance until the land is liberated and

Israel is defeated," an editorial in the newspaper Baath said.

Both Hizbollah, the Lebanese Shi'ite movement whose July 12 cross-border raid into Israel triggered a 34-day war with the Jewish state, and the Islamist group Hamas which won elections and runs the Palestinian government, refuse to recognize Israel.

"If the U.S. administration is serious about combating terrorism then it should play a constructive role in pushing forward the peace process on the basis of U.N. resolutions 242 and 338," the newspaper said.

The UN resolutions, passed decades ago, emphasize the inadmissibility of acquiring territory through war, call on Israel to withdraw from Arab land it has occupied since 1967 and call for negotiations to reach a "just and durable peace" in the Middle East.

"Absolute U.S. support for Israel is one of the main causes behind regional instability. The United States has helped Israel in the

United Nations stand against any proposal for a comprehensive settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict," the newspaper said.

Rice said this week that the United States was going "to have to look at tougher measures if Syria continues to be on the path that it's on." She said Washington would like other nations to join it in imposing "other kinds of sanctions" on Syria.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem told the U.N. General Assembly this week that the world pays the price when the U.S. government thinks it knows what Arabs want better than the Arabs themselves.

BAD RELATIONS

Relations between the United States, Israel's chief ally, and Syria have been bad for years, and hit a new low after last year's assassination in Beirut of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, who was friendly with Washington.

A U.N. investigation said the assassination could not have been carried out without the knowledge of Syrian security officials. Damascus denies involvement.

Diplomats in Damascus say Washington was also angered by the Syrian response to an attack carried out by Muslim militants on the U.S. embassy in Damascus on September 12.

Syrian security forces foiled the attack, but Syrian officials later said U.S. policies in the region and U.S. support for Israel were to blame because they had provoked the four Syrians who carried out the attack.

In May 2004, Washington banned a number of U.S. exports to Syria, severed banking ties with the country's largest bank and barred Syrian flights to and from the United States.

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Do we even care anymore? oh well...

Raytheon Projectile Scores a Direct Hit Against Moving T-72 Tank

by Staff Writers

Tucson AZ (SPX) Sep 26, 2006

Raytheon successfully conducted the first beyond line of sight mission with a test firing of its Mid Range Munition Chemical Energy (MRM-CE) guided projectile with digital semi active laser sensor. The projectile, fired from an Abrams M1A2 SEP (system enhancement program) tank, scored an extended-range, guided direct hit.

The test firing at the U.S. Army's Yuma, Ariz., Proving Grounds demonstrated the laser-guided seeker's ability to successfully target, acquire and track a moving tank and guide the munition to intercept at a distance of 5.4 miles (8.7 km).

"The round hit within inches of the aim point demonstrating 100 percent mission success. The MRM-CE 'One Team' concept uniting the Army's Picatinny Arsenal, General Dynamics Ordnance Tactical Systems and Raytheon is at the core of our success," said Rick Williams, Raytheon Missile Systems' MRM program manager.

The Raytheon MRM-CE projectile is designed to provide the Army with lethal, one-shot capability as it continues its transformation to lighter, more deployable combat forces. The MRM-CE, which will autonomously attack battlefield targets at beyond line of sight ranges, with or without external laser target designation, is a key component of the Army's Future Combat Systems vehicles.

"The MRM-CE continues to perform consistently and accurately and is ready to enter system development and demonstration," said Ken Pedersen, Raytheon Missile Systems' vice president of Advanced Programs.

The MRM-CE program is jointly developed and managed by Army Research and Development Command and the Project Manager -- Maneuver Ammunition Systems at Picatinny Arsenal, N.J.

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[Vergeltungswaffe]

Now THAT's reaching out and touching someone.

[Guderian's Duck]

Moral of story:

Don't get in a tank and fight the US. Use IED instead.

[Matt H]

Yea, unfortunately the people we are fighting don't drive T-72s, they drive a rusty datsun.

[Sergei]

Datsun has a better fuel economy than M1A2 Abrams.

[howardb]

Just strenghtens what a bad idea it is to engage in US/western terms of engagement. While their forces might be good to intimidate their neighbours, the tech gap to western armies is just too big.

Have any of the US-hostile states in the region learnt their lesson? Investing in tanks and planes seems pretty expensive and inefficient today. I wonder if Iran and Syria is re-organizing their armies in view of the succesfull Taliban and Iraq resistance?

[MikeyD]

Oftentimes perception is as important as reality. The impression that all our high tech widgets make us unbeatable is often far more valuable than the utility of the widgets themselves. The idea in the enemy's mind that we're capable of knocking out a moving tank from 8.7 miles get us more brownie points than the munitions actual utility warrants. That's why the last Lebanon war was such a disaster for Israel - People got the impression that high tech was no guarantee of success. The pyschological value of the Israeli Army's high tech widgets dropped steeply in value.

The worse thing that could happen to us is, if Bush decides to bomb Iran that they manage by some miracle to shoot down a B2 bomber. It would be a propaganda disaster. The massive psychological value of all our expensive high tech widgets will drop to near zero in the eyes of the world.

[Sergei]

Originally posted by howardb:

I wonder if Iran and Syria is re-organizing their armies in view of the succesfull Taliban and Iraq resistance?

USA is not the only military threat in the world, and you can't protect your borders with only IED's.