Regards, Ivan
Posted on 03/08/2003 6:51:42 PM PST by MadIvan
JOSEPH Wilson, a former American ambassador to Iraq, was the last US official to talk to Saddam Hussein. He believes that the next Gulf War has already started.
For many of the British and American troops massing near Iraq, this is also the reality. Both in the air and on the ground, allied forces are going on military missions that have nothing to do with the long-standing policy of containment that the US and Britain have imposed on Saddam for 12 years and everything to do with the invasion of Iraq.
Last week, for the first time, US and British warplanes began attacking targets that are no threat to their patrols of the Iraqi no-fly zones.
Although the official purpose of the no-fly zones is to protect Shia Muslims in the south and Kurds in the north, the Americans and British attacked surface-to-surface missile batteries, which they say are in range of troops in Kuwait.
"Not only has the decision been made to launch this invasion of Iraq, but for all intents and purposes, a war has begun," says Wilson.
"The rules of engagement covering the two no-fly zones were historically that US aircraft would attack anti-aircraft batteries and their command and control centres if we were painted by their radars.
"Those rules of engagement have now been changed to attack surface-to-surface missile batteries. That is a far different approach. That’s an offensive action."
British officials say that the missiles are being attacked because Saddam Hussein is moving them to the southern part of the country to bring Kuwait and Saudi Arabia within range.
But the US and Britain have nearly tripled the number of air patrols in the no-fly zones with the purpose of masking the start of actual combat, according to US officials.
In accordance with US military doctrine, General Tommy Franks, the commander of US forces in the Gulf, is establishing an irregular pattern of flights over invasion routes in the south, making it more difficult for Iraqi air defenders to foresee a shift from air patrols to combat missions, officials say. At least 500 sorties a day are now being flown over southern Iraq.
The increase in sorties and their unpredictability is meant to preserve an element of surprise for unleashing a barrage of bombs and missiles 10 times as great as in the opening days of the 1991 Gulf War.
On the ground, too, the war has begun. Several thousand American, British and Australian special forces troops are already on missions inside Iraq, and are carrying out operations on a scale unprecedented since the Second World War. Among them are more than 300 SAS troops whose mission is to identify Iraqi troop positions and confirm that targets chosen from satellite images for the first wave of attacks in the air bombardment are what they look like from the air.
British Special Boat Service and US Navy Seals are also seeking out crossing points over the River Euphrates for the main invasion force that will head for Baghdad from Kuwait. There is concern that the Iraqis will blow bridges and destroy about 30 dams on the Euphrates and Tigris upstream from Basra, the target for the main British force.
Special forces teams are even examining sites for holding the thousands of Iraqi troops who are expected to surrender at the first opportunity. During the last Gulf War, hundreds of coaches were hired to drive captured Iraqis to camps in Saudi Arabia, from where they were eventually released. This time the prisoners will be held in remote parts of Iraq itself.
The scale of the special forces’ incursions, and their relative freedom of movement in Iraq’s western and southern desert, indicates that, in practice, a vast area of Iraq has already been taken by allied troops without a shot.
The US and Britain have amassed more than 300,000 troops in the region, and another 100,000 are expected.
US commanders have told George Bush that they are ready for the main attack. On Friday, General Sir Mike Jackson, Britain’s Chief of the General Staff, said on a visit to Kuwait that British forces would be ready to go to war in Iraq within days if necessary.
"There are, I think, two or three more ships. I would think that four or five days would pretty much complete the whole logistic piece." Britain is contributing 45,000 troops to the Gulf build-up, 25,000 of them in Kuwait.
More American forces are also on the way. Last week, families said sombre goodbyes to thousands of seamen aboard the Nimitz as the aircraft carrier left its base at Coronado, California on a mission that will bring it within striking distance of Iraq, bringing the number of American aircraft carriers in the region to six.
The war of words that will be familiar over the coming weeks started last week when US and British aircraft bombed a mobile surface-to-air missile system and an anti-aircraft artillery site in western Iraq.
Iraq claimed that the allied raid, about 240 miles west of Baghdad, had killed three civilians. This was denied by the US.
"This is yet another example of the Iraqi propaganda machine putting out absolute untruths," US Marine Captain Stewart Upton said at Central Command forward headquarters in Qatar. "The target was in fact a military target."
Asked how the US military would know that it had not killed civilians, Upton said: "Intelligence enables us to see the damage assessment in real time."
Earlier, Iraq claimed that six civilians had been killed and 15 wounded in an air raid near Basra. US officials denied that, too. "The next war in the south has begun," an Iraqi government spokesman said after the raid on Basra.
The final preparations for the main invasion force to enter Iraq are being made, some of them bordering on the surreal. Armed US Marines in civilian clothes were seen cutting holes in the fence between Kuwait and Iraq and making gates. The fence is in a demilitarised zone set up after 1991 and monitored by the UN. The UN mission said that seven gates, each one wide enough to accommodate a tank, had been built.
A UN spokesman, Fred Eckhard, said that peacekeepers had reported "numerous violations," in the past three days "by personnel in civilian clothes in 4x4 vehicles, at least some of whom were armed and identified themselves as US Marines".
The breach may violate the Security Council resolution that set up the zone, he said.
The psychological war has also begun. Every night, US planes drop hundreds of thousands of leaflets over Iraq. Many urge Iraqi troops not to use weapons of mass destruction, mine waterways or release oil into the Gulf.
"Saddam has poisoned your waterways before," said a message delivered for the first time last week. "You must not aid him in doing so again."
It referred to January 1991, in the first Gulf War, when Iraqi forces opened valves at Gulf oil terminals and spilled more than six million barrels. The Iraqis also set 650 Kuwait oil wells on fire.
"Do not use weapons of mass destruction," warned another leaflet. It threatened "swift and severe retribution", and said "unit commanders will be held accountable," an implied threat of war crimes charges.
The messages also appeal to foot soldiers. "Do not risk your life. Leave now and go home," said one leaflet last week. "Watch your children learn, grow and prosper."
The objectives of the US leafleting, radio broadcasting, e-mails and phone calls to Iraqi forces are varied. They include attempts to undermine loyalty to Saddam, dissuade the military from carrying out certain orders and convince Iraqis that deposing Saddam would improve their lives.
But not everything is going the way the US war commanders would prefer. The US is having to rethink its war plan for the northern front to take account of the Turkish parliament’s vote against allowing US troops to pass through Turkey into Iraq.
The original idea was for 20,000 American troops of the 4th Mechanised Infantry Division to invade Iraq from the north to keep a significant number of Iraqi Republican Guards pinned down protecting Saddam’s home town of Tikrit, secure the northern oil fields, and hold the northern approaches to Baghdad. That now looks impossible. Instead, airborne troops, such as the Parachute Regiment and the US 101st Airborne Division, may be parachuted in to secure the oil fields.
US and British Marines may be despatched from ships in the Gulf to seize airfields in the north, enabling the giant US C17 Galaxies to fly in the 40th Division with their tanks.
The Turkish government may ask parliament to vote again on allowing US troops through Turkey, but the Americans are not banking on it. The US is having better luck with the Saudis , although here, too, co-operation is far less than Washington would like. Officially, Saudi Arabia is refusing to allow US troops and planes based on its soil to take part in any war on Iraq, as they did in 1991. But in practice the Saudis have agreed to allow the US to fly refuelling aircraft, surveillance planes and battlefield radar aircraft from Saudi airfields.
The war preparations are not all on one side. Iraq is moving four divisions towards Baghdad, where tanks and artillery are taking up positions among civilian buildings, such as schools, hospitals and mosques. The city is gearing up for street-to-street fighting. The number of trenches and sandbagged gun positions has tripled in two weeks. Last week columns of men clad in white paraded through Baghdad, pledging to give their lives in suicide attacks on US troops. Saddam appears nightly on television to reassure Iraqis that the Americans will be no match in a ground battle, and feeding the notion that Iraqis fighting on home terrain will have an edge over their better-armed opponents.
At a televised meeting with infantry commanders, he described the aspects of a US aircraft carrier in the Gulf : a nuclear power station, a water desalination plant, nine storeys and 20,000 meals a day. "But does it have tyres to reach Baghdad? Certainly not. The one thing that will finally decide the battle is a soldier on his feet," he said.
Regards, Ivan
I've said before that I believe the groundwork for invasion is already being done, and has been underway for months. And the only reason we haven't started major operations is because we aren't ready. I truly believe that Bush will go in when the proper preparations have been made, not a minute sooner, nor a minute later. In addtion, the current ops will make the "invasion" tremendously bloodless and quick.
(I also haven't given up the hope that Iran falls at the same time, but that is more wishful thinking.)
Wanna 'splane that?
And, to Nr. 7:
It's been going on for months now, reasonably, properly, and with forethought.
Good to see adults running the show.
Marshal Bush strikes again
Indeed. "Strategery" works every time it's tried.
Regards, Ivan
On the ground, too, the war has begun. Several thousand American, British and Australian special forces troops are already on missions inside Iraq, and are carrying out operations on a scale unprecedented since the Second World War. Among them are more than 300 SAS troops whose mission is to identify Iraqi troop positions and confirm that targets chosen from satellite images for the first wave of attacks in the air bombardment are what they look like from the air.
24/7 is about to happen but not on the Estrada nomination....
"Raackit" comes, I believe, from the Jim Rome sports site and denotes major props.
"Smackdown" is a term from the wrestling programs, meaning to take someone down quickly.
Aussie refers, of course, to the Australians and Ivan to the Brits, from MadIvan's nationality.
"Cheers sweety darlings" comes from the British show "Absolutely Fabulous", and Patsy wa one of the principal characters.
So, what this means is "All right! We are going to to war with the Aussies and the Brits! We are going to win big! Glad to have the Brits with us! "
Seven of Nine is one of my best friendds here, and she finds really good information on the foreign web sites. I like her language because it teaches me something that I didn't know, and it is very expressive!
SCREW the UN. They were exactly what we thought; useless if not subversive apologists for terror-sponsoring states.
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