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Politics : Al Gore vs George Bush: the moderate's perspective -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (684)	9/16/2000 11:30:13 AM
From: long-gone	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10042

'October Surprise' Could Provoke War With Russia NewsMax.com Saturday, Sept. 16, 2000 If the Clinton administration resorts to the same tactics Clinton used to drive his Monica problems off the front pages when he bombed Sudan and Afghanistan, and springs an October surprise to help Gore win the election by attacking Iraq, he could set off a war with Russia. The prospect of a nuclear war with Russia loomed larger as the result of two little-noticed events: Administration saber-rattling evident in the sudden beefing up of U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf, which the Clinton administration admits is partially due to U.S. alleged fears that Saddam Hussein might attack Kuwait or Saudi Arabia. Russia’s announcement that it plans to resume regular commercial flights to Baghdad in spite of the U.N. air embargo on that nation. As reported this week in NewsMax.com, observers fear that the administration is gearing up for a possible October surprise attack on Iraq. "Agence France Press reports the United States is flying scores of warplanes and thousands of support troops to Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Turkey as part of a scheduled rotation of forces that coincides with heightened concern about Iraq, Pentagon officials said Tuesday," NewsMax.com said. "The forces, which began moving into the region in late August, will temporarily overlap with forces in those countries that are being sent home after a 90-day tour," the officials said. Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said the current rotation was "fairly standard" and that there were no plans to increase the size of the U.S. force in the region. A Chill in the Air, a Bomb in the Sky "Now, I will tell you that we obviously watch Iraq very, very closely, but particularly at this time of year, because August, September and October tend to be the times when Saddam Hussein historically has either decided to attack his neighbors or attack his own people," Bacon said. What worries many observers is the danger of a U.S. bombing raid on Baghdad. Russian planes could be destroyed and passengers killed, setting off an explosive confrontation with Moscow that could quickly escalate into war. And given the deplorable state of Russia’s conventional forces there is little doubt it would resort to using its huge nuclear arsenal, which the Kremlin regards as its first line of defense. Experts recall that anger over the U.S.-led war in Kosovo almost provoked a confrontation with Moscow, and point out the fact that no Russians or assets were involved in that conflict. That would not be true were the U.S. to bomb Baghdad and catch Russian planes and Russian passengers on the ground. According to the Washington Post, the Iraqi government reopened Baghdad's Saddam Hussein International Airport for business last month. Moreover, the Russian airline Aeroflot and Moscow's Vnukovo Airlines have begun to negotiate with Iraq for exclusive rights to fly from Moscow to Baghdad. Russian Passenger Planes in Iraq? While a final Kremlin decision may not be made before the end of the year, the danger of Russian planes being in Baghdad before that time remains. "The resumption of air links with Baghdad and the unblocking of humanitarian contracts frozen by the U.N. Sanctions Committee would constitute a quicker settlement of the Iraq problem," according to a joint statement issued Wednesday by Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and Tariq Aziz, Iraq's deputy prime minister. The prospect of a renewed war against Iraq increased with the U.S. warning to Iraq that it would use military force if Baghdad threatened neighbor Kuwait. Iraq may be giving Clinton exactly the excuse he needs to attack Baghdad. The warning came as a result of the latest flare-up of tensions between Iraq and Kuwait, provoked by Baghdad's allegation Thursday that Kuwait is stealing oil from its fields in the south of the country. Iraq also accused Kuwait of sabotage and theft of Baghdad's crude by drilling oil wells in a joint zone straddling the border. Similar accusations led to Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in August 1990 and set off the Gulf War. Iraq now says it will take unspecified measures against Kuwait, a threat observers say is made to test U.S. resolve to defend Kuwait. "We haven't stolen anything," Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah told Reuters news agency. "If you take from your own land it can't be stealing," he said. The U.S. has now warned Iraq against threatening her neighbors and said it is prepared to use its armed forces based in the Gulf to retaliate if Iraq takes such action. "We do have a credible force in the region and are prepared to use it in an appropriate way at a time of our choosing," U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said ominously. The idea of Clinton using an October surprise war to help Gore win is not so far-fetched, given the president’s past record. In a recent speech liberal journalist Christopher Hitchens commented on Clinton’s willingness to use U.S. armed forces to further his personal and political ambitions. "A president had really, in a psycho manner, deployed the armed forces of his country and been prepared to shed blood, for his own face and his own distraught personality," Hitchens said. This time, however, Clinton could find himself facing a nation capable of striking back hard – Russia. newsmax.com