US raid on Syrian bases 1983

Hello
I remember that back in 1983, after the attack on US marines in Beyruth, president Reagan decided to strike back at the druze milita, who were backed by the Syrians. The New Jersey bombed some artillery basis and the US Navy launched an air operation with about 40 planes against the druze militias and the Syrian forces supporting them. In that raid, two US planes were shot – an A6 and an A7 – , one pilot was rescued by the Syrians and was allowed to go back to the US. I suppose that the syrian defences were similar to the ones that the Israeli crushed in 1982 : SA6, SA3, SA2 , ZSU 23-4, Zsu 57-2 and their radar system. Question is : why was the US raid relatively unsucesful and costly ? I suppose that they could not neutralise the AA since there were no HARM missiles available at this time, but what about AGM 45 Shrike ? Were the Syrians so good ? Were the US so bad ? To loose 2 planes out of 40 in a single raid was not considered catastrophic at that time but compared to the domination exerced by the US in GW it ‘s pityfull. So I would be interested in comments about the relative weaknesses/strengths of the US and Syrian forces in 1983, the relatively better performance of the Israeli Air force against the same Syrians and the changes occurred since then