.....We and the Brits don’t have enough manpower in theater to invade Syria .....
Let’s think on that. How many troops and tanks does Syria have to defend on two fronts?
I would argue they don’t have that many and the force guarding the Iraqi border is small enough to be vertically enveloped and eliminated. The back door to Damascus would be open. The war would last 4 days.
I wouldn’t know about four days. I’d expect the Syrians to put up a fight (then again, I was expecting a legitimate battle for Baghdad). After all, the Izzies held the Syrians in high regard among the normal cast of characters they’ve had to fight against. When the Iraqis sent their little expeditionary force to the aid the Arabs against Israel, they didn’t perform so well.
Also, who’s going to be watching Iraq while we’re away? We’ve got a total of 150,000 odd troops in the country. And what about logistics? I don’t think we still have that ridiculously long supply line that we had for about the first year of the war, but still it’s a stretch to maintain those lines, especially since the M1s guzzle gas at a very high rate. Not to mention it’s another organizational hassle.
In order to vertically envelop the Syrians on the border (I don’t think there’s that many) we’d have to knock out the Syrian air defense apparatus first, giving them sufficient time to withdraw to a more defensible position. Even then, I think vertical envelopments are iffy (you mean using helos to drop our troops behind the enemy, right?). Remember when we tried that bizarre helo attack during the early days of the war? They were turned back by mostly small arms and RPGSs. What do you think will happen with Shilkas, ZSU-23s, and whatever other low level mobile air defense systems? Light AAA and the necessary isolation are two big things against that approach in my book. Using the 82nd in their paratrooper capacity wouldn’t be well advised either IMHO. There’s a reason that the last “in anger” paratroop drop was against an enemy with marginal air defenses.
Sure we could operate in concert with the Izzies, but I don’t see any need for us to get involved if this extremely unlikely event occurs.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention (although it was in one of my earlier posts) that if we were to invade Syria, we’d be leaving the door wide open for the Iranians.
No, best let the Israelis deal with Syria if it comes up.