Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dayuhan who wrote (21590)	3/17/2002 7:25:14 PM
From: unclewest	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

I am not convinced that a major military base in the region would necessarily be a huge asset. i agree...i do not see value in a major US base in iraq. If we do invade Iraq, we will have to do it without land bases or with very limited use of them: our allies in the area are understandably reluctant to provide bases for an operation that they see as not in accordance with their interests. If we succeed, it will demonstrate that we do not need a major military base to perform such operations. If we fail, we won't have the base in any case. there is no reasonable way for us to invade iraq without massive land and sea base support in the region. we simply do not have the capability to deploy and support a 250,000 man force from the air. uw

To: Dayuhan who wrote (21590)	3/18/2002 6:26:09 PM
From: BigBull	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

SR, thought you might be interested in these two articles wrt "Kurdistan" and possible Iraqi links to al Qaeda. washingtonpost.com The New Yorker quoted a PUK captive, a veteran Iraqi intelligence officer named Qassem Hussein Muhammad, as saying that Ayman al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian who is bin Laden's top aide, visited Saddam Hussein and other top Iraqi officials during a lengthy stay in Baghdad in 1992. newyorker.com In this week's issue, Jeffrey Goldberg reports from Kurdistan, in northern Iraq, where, in the late nineteen-eighties, Saddam Hussein waged a devastating chemical and, possibly, biological war against the Kurdish people. Today, the Kurds have achieved limited autonomy, thanks to the U.S.-British no-fly zone, but they still face the threat of ethnic cleansing. Goldberg's report also raises questions about fears of future biochemical attacks against America or Israel—as well as Iraq's possible links to Al Qaeda. Here Goldberg discusses his trip to Kurdistan and his article