So that's why he's been so confident lately:

The absolute impunity with which the IAF violated Syrian airspace obviously represents a humiliating failure for Assad. But how bad was the breakdown in Syrian counter-intelligence? This bad:

They were hanging out for days waiting for the jets to come in, then presumably they got the hell out of Dodge without Syrian forces being able to stop them from coming in or out of the country. No wonder the Syrians are trying to buy nuclear weapons off the shelf - they're too incompetent to build them, and something tells us that their army is not really ready to go against the IDF.

References:
* Report: Syria had planned 'devastating surprise' for Israel [Ha'aretz]
* Spectacular IDF Actions Aimed At Restoring Israel's Deterrent [MR]

Previously:
* WaPo Reveals Exact Nature Of Top Secret Israeli Strike In Syria - It Was On The Turkish Border, It Came From North Korea, And Israel Blew It Up Because It Was Nuclear
* MR Takes A Swing At The "What The Hell Happened Over Syria" Pitch - Supersonic Missles Or Electronic Jamming Of Russia's "Unjammable" Anti-Aircraft SAMs
* Sarkozy: Let's Engage Syria! Barry Rubin: Let's Not!

Cross-posted to:
* The Astute Bloggers