Sunday morning thoughts:
I think what's today become the crux of the problem for Bush-Cheney tagteam is that they committed too strongly and too soon too many US troops into the region. Bad move!
Unless the UN inspection teams discover something horrible, the Bush-Cheney Administration is severely stuck with two less than desirable options: a) Commit US troops to war a state of a very weakened alliance, if any; or, b) Keeping those forces there until the inspection process gets thoroughly completed and Saddam ends up flunking the test.
I don't think UN will lift sanctions against Iraq unless and until it's absolutely certain no weapons of mass destruction exist in the country. If none are found, then, and only then, will Iraq be able to trade normally with other nations. Anyone here realistically think this, more than anything, is actually what Saddam would like to see happen?
Another point to consider. The resolve of the US people became very strong in the aftermath of 9/11. Indeed, this tragedy proved a true hardship for our citizenry and we all became stronger as a nation because of it. Unquestionably, adversity has a way of increasing self-determination.
So let's consider the hardships the Iraqi people have experienced under over the past 10 years. Does it appear to anyone whose been watching closely, that those folk are about to cave in and curry US demands? I don't see it.
If anything, I see the Iraqi people growing stronger in their opposition to what they perceive as US bullyism. Much though many of us here in America don't seem to understand, the Iraqi people don't see Saddam as the bully--they, as are other people from around the world, are seeing the US as the bully!
Consequently, I suspect if Bush-Cheney move forward in a weakened alliance--which it can only be if no WMD are found from the inspection process, or if the inspection process gets unilaterally curtailed by the US--the Iraqi military forces will retreat into Baghdad to blend into what might be a conventionally-armed citizenry. Together, not apart, these people will defend what they--the people of Iraq--consider their own homeland.
Indeed, the US attacking a city of 5.5 million people and one housing a military force 300,000 strong will be no cake walk. More likely, under this scenario, US generals will get cold feet and exhibit a strong hesitancy to want to move US forces into the death depths of Baghdad. Such a deathcount, for both sides, would be--think about it!--unimaginable.
And as much as the Administration has been spurned by the rest of the world in the course of its military buildup--i.e., virtually nil UN support for military action without proof from inspections--this anger and frustration against the US can and will heighten, indeed worsen, if Baghdad ends up getting held by the US in a state of prolonged seige.
The world's PR specialists and propaganderists, the best that money can buy, will, themselves, be standing naked next to the Emperor wearing no clothes. At this point, I suspect even the American media will have to admit a mistake has been made. |
