I often wonder if the common view of the burden against Damascus in Isaiah 17:1 is seen in error. Most (including myself) think that it will be Israel who destroys Damascus in the latter days. But given the recent public show of support between Ahmadinejad and Syria's President Bashar Assad makes me wonder if it isn't the US which destroys Damascus instead. Considering the growing tensions between the US and Syria, in addition to her suspected WMD arsenal which may have been transfered from Iraq just before Operation Desert Freedom began, it does seem possible.
 
The strategic theater in the Middle-East is now changing almost on a day-to-day basis it seems. Syria continues almost unabated to feed all the groups of terrorists in Israel, Lebanon, and Iraq as Iran does the same. Both are now in some temporary alliance against Israel and the west, which is only adding more heat to a pot of oil already ! reaching the boiling point in the Middle-East.
As seen in Ezekiel 38, Syria, Jordan, and other hardened enemies of Israel are missing from the prophetic equation of the Gog-Magog war. The west may be indicated in Ezekiel 39:6 as receiving fire from God while living in security in the coastlands. But I wonder if a war between the Gog-Magog aliiance and the United States unfold prior to the allied invasion onto Israel where this alliance will lose all but 1/6 of her armies. And in the midst of an unimaginably destructive war, prior to any invasion into Israel, it may be possible that Damascus received the death blow in this exchange Isaiah foretold, which is why Ezekiel could not see her meeting the Bear and the Persian kitty on the northern mountains of Israel.
 
Interesting.