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Mondo Washington by James Ridgeway ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -------- U.S. Counts Down Last Days of Saddam Seizures in the Middle East Ariel Sharon's siege of Yasir Arafat's headquarters may well turn out to be Saddam Hussein's major victory in his struggle to convince the Arab world to oppose a planned attack on Iraq. While George W. Bush says rhetorically that it hasn't decided whether or when to attack, there are numerous indications that the administration is seriously considering some form of strike. "I don't know when, but I know this president is not going to let Saddam Hussein stay in power," said South Carolina Republican congressman Lindsey Graham last week. He is running for the GOP Senate nomination. And the Turkish press quoted Dick Cheney as telling Sharon that the U.S. was planning to attack Iraq "first and foremost for Israel's sake." There has been some increase in U.S. military presence, with forces in Kuwait being doubled to 10,500 in recent months. There now are some 80,000 American military personnel in the Middle East and Central Asia. An attack may come in the form of heavy bombardment of Iraqi installations thought to be researching and making mass-destruction weapons, or of seizure of oil fields in southern Iraq. The latter would not require the tens of thousands of troops; theoretically, at least, that would keep U.S. casualties to a minimum. Seizing the oil fields would throw down the gauntlet to Saddam and leave him no choice but to respond by sending in his own army. If that were to happen, our planes would have a turkey shoot. Despite what the hard-line mullahs say, Iran in the past has indicated it would stay out of a war between the U.S. and Iraq. In any event, Sharon's strike at the Palestinians seems to have temporarily united the Arab world, and it made the Saudis, who had just proposed a peace plan, look like fools. The situation between the Saudis and U.S. military is difficult. The U.S. is believed to have about 4500 troops stationed at the Prince Sultan base; the number of planes based there is unknown. From the base, U.S. planes patrol the southern no-fly zone in Iraq. If retaliatory strikes are involved, the planes would fly out of Kuwait so as not to upset the Saudis. Saudi Arabia refused the U.S. permission to fly sorties over Afghanistan, but the base did serve as an electronic hub for the campaign. Crown Prince Abdullah, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, has been against any attack on Iraq. He told Cheney that the U.S. "should not strike Iraq, because such an attack would only raise animosity in the region against the United States." To relieve tensions, the U.S. is reportedly planning to move its big base from Saudi Arabia to Qatar. The real Arab weapon is oil, and last week Saddam urged Arab leaders to employ "economic measures" against Israel and its supporters. If the Arabs were to mount an oil embargo as they did in the 1970s, the war would come home, and Bush probably would face a major political backlash. http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0214/ridgeway.php ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -------- --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
