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

To: Bilow who wrote (43639)	9/12/2002 10:22:39 PM
From: Nadine Carroll	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

There you go putting words in my mouth. I defy you to find a single post where I have ever stated that the United States doesn't have bases in the Middle East, or that bases were sufficient, in and of themselves, to support a ground war against Iraq You've said all the countries surrounding Iraq oppose the attack, implying we won't get cooperation OR bases. You've trumpeted every Arab diplomatic pronouncement against the war. Jordan is opposed, you said. Our soldiers are just there for routine war games. Kuwait is opposed. Well, the Arabic News says we have 15,000 soldiers deployed in Jordan and 60,000 in Kuwait, sounds cooperative to me. And looky here, seems Qattar is fessing up that they are not, after all, totally opposed to a US attack on Iraq: Qatar hints it could be base for US strike on Saddam By JANINE ZACHARIA WASHINGTON Qatar's foreign minister indicated Thursday that his country, a key US ally in the Persian Gulf, might permit the US to launch an attack on Baghdad from inside its borders. "The United States [hasn't] asked up until now for any support or any permission for an attack from Qatar [on Iraq], and if they ask us, we will look at this very seriously," Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani said. "You have to realize we have a very special relation with the United States, and this relation always will be in our consideration in any decision that will be taken by the state of Qatar." Sheikh Hamad, who also expressed confidence that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein would allow UN weapons inspectors back into his country, spoke as newspapers reported that the US Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, is preparing to transfer 600 officers to Qatar in November for a war game. As US-Saudi relations have chilled Riyadh was the base for the central command's operations in the 1991 Persian Gulf War Washington has begun looking to Qatar as a possible launching pad for an offensive against Iraq. The US is investing billions in the development of its Al-Udeid Air Base near Doha. Its 15,000-foot runway is the longest in the region and could prove crucial for any US air offensive. Sheikh Hamad met with Saddam in Baghdad in August to try to persuade him to accept weapons inspectors and possibly defer US military action, which he said "will destabilize the area." In an address at the Brookings Institution, he said "I will not be surprised if [Saddam] will accept the inspectors to be in Baghdad. He is just worried that if he allows the inspectors in, the military action will be done, so he says, 'Why should I do it if the military action will be done with or without the inspectors.' " jpost.com Well, whadya know about that? All the time you guys talk about war as if it's around the corner and all the time you're disappointed Still such a problem reading a calendar, Carl? It's now September. The year ends in what month? You can remember if you try -g-