What is shari'ah? Anything to do with this?
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Proposed U.S. military operations against Iraq have suffered from the problem of the lack of nearby bases, with the Saudis reluctant to cooperate and the alternative northern route through the Kurdish mountains from Turkey posing formidable logistical problems. Maybe an alternative is in the works. British and U.S. military reconnaissance teams have been spotted in eastern Jordan, close to the Iraqi frontier and diplomats sources say Jordan's King Abdullah is considering the provision of a Special Forces base near the border for Scud-hunting operations inside Iraq. These bases, needing helicopter and air support, have a tendency to grow. But if Jordan were fully to join the effort to topple Saddam, the prize could be tempting -- and could also answer the question of who replaces Saddam. Until his assassination in 1958, the Hashemite King Faisal II was the head of state of Iraq. King Hussein of Jordan, father of the current King Abdullah, was Faisal's cousin, and the heir to the Iraqi throne, Sharif Ali, lives conveniently in London. The return of a constitutional monarchy to Iraq could be a plausible replacement for Saddam Hussein -- and how could the Arab world object to the return of the Hashemite dynasty, direct descendants of the prophet Muhammed?
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