Preparations for an Iraqi war quicken. The New York Times (“U.S. said to ready Kurds areas in Iraq for possible war”) and the Los Angeles Times (“Northern Front Is Part of U.S. War Strategy) had major articles about US war preparations in Northern Iraq and Turkey today (a sign that leakers, official or otherwise, were busy in Washington). As we are now “readying” Kurdish Iraq for the war to come, so we “readied” the various ‘Stans of Central Asia and Pakistan for the Afghan war that felled the Taliban. As it turned out, this meant, among other things, establishing new bases or rights to already existing bases that were later to become permanent encampments, part of an intensive American garrisoning of the planet’s oil regions. Though there’s been neither reporting on, nor leaks on the subject, we have to assume — no, we know — that after a victorious war in Iraq, the US, like some vast beast leaving its spoor behind, will drop further bases into strategically crucial Iraq.
In the meantime, clear your New Year schedules. Reporters Amos Harel and Nathan Guttman in the Israeli paper Ha’aretz report that the Bush administration has given the Sharon government a “window” of possible dates for war to begin. (“IDF quickens pace in its preparations for U.S. war in Iraq”). Note, by the way, Israeli skepticism about American prewar triumphalism on the course of the war. According to Harel and Guttman,
“In consultations last week between Mofaz and senior U.S. officials, the Americans outlined the “window” of dates between which they believe the Iraq operation is to be conducted. This is a period stretching between the end of January and the end of February… U.S. officials believe that the operation in Iraq will last about two months, and will be completed before the start of the summer. Israel is skeptical about this forecast; security officials believe that the American offensive is liable to last longer than a few months.
“…Preparing for the offensive against Iraq, the U.S. armed forces are stepping up joint exercise schedules with various forces in the Middle East. For instance, navies from the U.S., Turkey and Israel will take part in a joint exercise off Israel’s coasts on January 1.”
To read more of the Ha’aretz piece click here
The best recent summary I’ve seen of where we’re at on an Iraqi war is Ed Vulliamy’s piece today in the British Observer. Tom
Will he really risk a fight?
By Ed Vulliamy
December 22, 2002
The Observer
“…Preparing for the offensive against Iraq, the U.S. armed forces are stepping up joint exercise schedules with various forces in the Middle East. For instance, navies from the U.S., Turkey and Israel will take part in a joint exercise off Israel’s coasts on January 1.”
To read more of the Ha’aretz piece click here
The best recent summary I’ve seen of where we’re at on an Iraqi war is Ed Vulliamy’s piece today in the British Observer. Tom
Will he really risk a fight?
By Ed Vulliamy
December 22, 2002
The ObserverPolitical leaders are preparing their peoples for war. Mighty military machines are ready for action, as thousands of troops take up positions near the borders of Iraq. The bitterness of the rhetoric between Washington and Baghdad suggests war is inevitable, probably imminent. But whether that is true depends on calculations still being made by two men – Presidents George Bush and Saddam Hussein.
Saddam must decide whether he really wants to fight a war he cannot win and which could – if it goes the way he and some in the US say it might – end his rule and turn his country into the dust.
Meanwhile, Bush – for all his declared yearning for peace – is said by sources in both Washington and the United Nations to be a man with his mind set
To read more Vulliamy click here