Hi Nadine Carroll; Re: "I would call that one of debka's more wishful interpretations." [That the assault on Iraq will happen sooner rather than later.]
Maybe you're starting to see the reality with regard to the US and Iraq. Let me quote you from three months ago:
Nadine Carroll, January 16, 2002
What are you smoking, Bilow?
...
All that Bush would need to do to take us into Iraq is make a case for it. The Defense Department hawks all want it, and I think President Bush does too. You know how he reveres his father? Saddam Hussein tried to kill him. I don't think President Bush has forgotten.
...
Israel didn't fight on the side of the US in the Gulf War because it was forbidden to do so -- the US didn't give them the friend-or-foe codes to make sure of it.
I think that this President Bush will give them the codes. The Turks, the Israelis and the US have been doing extensive joint military exercises in the eastern Mediteranean during the last year. President Bush also knows for sure that Arik Sharon will not sit idle if Iraqi scuds fall on Tel Aviv. A shipful of US-made antidotes to chemical and biological weapons was delivered to Haifa a couple of weeks ago. Preparations are being made.
The "coalition" that Colin Powell was so big on has been shown up as useless. The public is in no mood to throw sops and sweet talk to the Arabs after 9/11, and the Arab orgy of denial. The Arab street was silenced by our victory in Afghanistan. Arab diplomats are saying in private, "You swear that you will finish Saddam this time?" I think we're going to reacquire respect in the Middle East the old-fashioned way -- we're going to beat the crap out of someone. Can't think of a nicer, more deserving guy than Saddam Hussein. #reply-16916350
Bilow, January 16, 2002
I doubt that Bush will be able to start a war with Iraq. It's not true that all the hawks want one. The isolationists were forced to go into Afghanistan, they will also have to be forced to go into Iraq. I remind you again, the US didn't even declare war on Germany until Germany declared war on the US. In the absence of a friendly regime asking for US assistance against Iraqi agression, a US war against Iraq just isn't going to happen. Iraq's regime is a military dictatorship. It is not in the same boat as the Taliban. If there were some other fundamentalist regime that was allowing terrorists to openly operate against the US, then the US might have cause to attack, but there is none.
A more realistic scenario, especially given the changes in US policy on assassination, would be for the US secret service to act against Saddam Hussein personally. But even that isn't going to happen unless the US perceives that Saddam remains a threat -- to the US. #reply-16918479
-- Carl |
