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

To: Rascal who wrote (124644)	2/12/2004 11:49:23 AM
From: Nadine Carroll	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

Thanks for reminding us that it was hardly a foreordained result that Iraq would fall in three weeks with few American casualties. However, Chalabi, soothing again, believes the ``Samson option'' could be forestalled by denying Saddam access to the western desert, by intense intelligence work in Jordan and by guaranteeing Jordan the oil it gets from Iraq Isn't this what happened? Didn't most of what Chalabi said, come true? Anthony Zinni, special envoy for the Middle East, dismisses the Iraqi National Congress as ``silk-suited, Rolex-wearing guys in London'' who could create a fiasco akin to the 1961 Bay of Pigs operation by U.S.-supported anti-Castro exiles--a ``Bay of Goats,'' Zinni warns. There was no Bay of Pigs. Instead, the whole country fell in three weeks. So, your point is?

To: Rascal who wrote (124644)	2/12/2004 5:44:33 PM
From: Hawkmoon	Respond to of 281500

How brittle is Saddam's regime? So brittle, Chalabi says, that breaking it might require minimal U.S. forces on the ground. Well, it would appear that Chalabi and David Kay would have agreed about this. However, Chalabi, soothing again, believes the ``Samson option'' could be forestalled by denying Saddam access to the western desert, by intense intelligence work in Jordan and by guaranteeing Jordan the oil it gets from Iraq. And he was right about the "Samson Option" as well, as Nadine has already noted. And some American officials are caustic about the Iraqi opposition. Retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni, special envoy for the Middle East, dismisses the Iraqi National Congress as ``silk-suited, Rolex-wearing guys in London'' who could create a fiasco akin to the 1961 Bay of Pigs operation by U.S.-supported anti-Castro exiles--a ``Bay of Goats,'' Zinni warns. Which was also apparent when Chalabi and his "army" were flown in to Iraq.. But we did not opt for Chalabi's forces to spur an insurrection. We opted to do ourselves (Coalition Forces) and let Chalabi prove that he possessed the backing from the Iraqi people as deserved to hold some form of political power. Certainly the Cuban exiles--and feckless U.S. officials--overestimated the fragility of Castro's regime, and the potential for a small invasion to ignite a popular uprising. Well, there WAS supposed to be US air cover for the Bay of Pigs forces, but Kennedy held it back. Hence, those anti-Castro forces never had a chance against Castro's mechanized forces being bottled up on their beachhead... But that's not to say that the invasion would have succeeded.. However, where there was a will, there was a way.. And it would have saved the Cuban people 40 years of misery and deprivation. Hawk