As the Obama administration continues its foreign-policy schizophrenia, it’s useful to remember that any Obama strike on Syria will not be the first time U.S. forces have engaged Syrians. Just a few months shy of 30 years ago, Syrian anti-aircraft batteries in Lebanon fired on American reconnaissance planes supporting the U.S. and international peacekeeping force in Lebanon. In response, President Ronald Reagan ordered the Syrian positions hit. From a December 5, 1983 New York Times report:

Syria’s Minister of Defense said today that the American airman captured by Syrian troops after they shot down his aircraft on Sunday would not be returned until “the war” was over and American troops left Lebanon. He confirmed a report that the other American flier in the Navy attack bomber had died, and said the body was to be turned over to the United States Embassy in Damascus today… The American marines remained on alert in their compound at Beirut International Airport, although there was no resumption of the shelling that killed eight of them and wounded two on Sunday. The shelling occurred hours after an American air strike on Syrian targets east of the Lebanese capital in which two United States planes were shot down. (The Soviet Union “resolutely condemned” the American air raids against Syrian positions in Lebanon, terming them “a serious threat to peace in the Middle East, and not only in that region….”)

While I am on record favoring a limited strike against chemical weapons targets on both sides of the conflict, the opposition really isn’t better than the regime at this point and has certainly not become more moderate. Still, as much as history informs, let us hope that amongst all his flip-flopping, President Obama both remembers the danger of complications manned aircraft could pose if downed for whatever reason over Syrian territory. While Syria might not be able to down a U.S. aircraft unassisted, Obama should not put anything past Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has had enough time over the past several weeks to insert “advisers” wherever he might need. Here too, history informs. Putin’s mentality remains firmly in his KGB past and the Soviet heyday. Moscow’s condemnation now really is no different than it was in 1983. The only difference is in the character of the American presidency.