'Bombing Saddam is ignorance'

The UK Guardian Unlimited ^ | Sunday March 3, 2002 | Henry Porter (The Observer)

[vannrox]

I wonder why it is not published in the US? Or is it?

[TheDon]

'Bombing Saddam is ignorance'
I put the title through AltaVista's Babblefish translation, set for liberal to English translation, and it came out:
'Not Bombing Saddam is ignorance'

[ScholarWarrior]

Brilliant guy "he could simply move his tanks into Syria causing war with Israel"
...causing his country to glow like the Blob

Did you ever wonder why some former CIA say all the OTHER agents were idiots EXCEPT them?
I say this one was disgruntled and his opinion isnt worth the time of day.

[The_Expatriate]

After a quarter of century abroad, Baer hardly recognises the States and is appalled at the level of public ignorance.

That the US has changed almost beyond recognition and that the American public on the whole is appallingly ignorant is an observation shared by many of us who have spent considerable time observing the US through "outsiders' eyes."

[Texaggie79]

Mr. T says that this article is right. We should bomb dem foo's in England!!!!

[pgkdan]

This guy sounds like real horse's ass. Glad he's EX-CIA.

[Braak]

It's not ignorance, Mr Baer...simply a good start on "Operation Global Vermin Flush."

[Bommer]

Robert Baer, the ex-CIA man in Iraq during the failed uprising in 1995, says the US is not in a position to strike against Iraq because it does not understand anything about the country

Whats to understand? Drop bomb, kill lots of people to a point where surviors quit! Wonder if this idiot was the main reason that the uprising in 95 failed?

[DentsRun]

Brilliant guy "he could simply move his tanks into Syria causing war with Israel" ...causing his country to glow like the Blob

Did you ever wonder why some former CIA say all the OTHER agents were idiots EXCEPT them? I say this one was disgruntled and his opinion isnt worth the time of day.

I still don't understand why so many people are so worried about Iraq (given that it's China that has thermonuclear weapons and ICBMs). Even if Iraq has managed to cobble together a nuclear warhead, it has no missiles capable of reaching the U.S. And, as you say, if Saddam were foolish enough to use a nuclear weapon against Israel, the Israeli counterattack would make his country "glow like the Blob." In the Gulf War we told Saddam that we'd use nuclear weapons if he used poison gas or biological weapons against us or Israel. And he didn't. His SCUDS were armed with conventional warheads. He may be a tyrant, but he's not a stupid one.

[ScholarWarrior]

I think the issue is that China may be using Iraq/Iran to project power into the Middle East.
We do and should care about the Saudi/Kuwaiti oilfields.
Containment of the Soviets worked. Destroying Iraq / Iran and the projecting US military power into Central Asia will seriously disrupt the Chinese plan.

Works for me.

[grammymoon]

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[sinkspur]

But we have already shown ourselves to be the ugly, imperialist Americans who don't give a damn about those people or any people other than ourselves. And we will pay for that.

Only dimwits blame America for what tyrant Arabs do to their own people.

Baer is jealous that he's no longer in the loop. In his public appearances, he's reduced to conjecture because he no longer has a clue as to what is happening.

Like Scott Ritter.

[DentsRun]

I think the issue is that China may be using Iraq/Iran to project power into the Middle East.

I would never claim that nothing escapes me but I never heard that before. I thought Iraq was a protégé of Russia, not China. Iran buys missle motors from North Korea. Is that the China connection you were talking about?

[ScholarWarrior]

In the absence of the Russians sending military equipment to arm Arab states in exchange for hard currency, China would seek to fill the void, operating through North Korea if required.

Iraq / Iran have a need for military and technical equipment. China has a need for hard currency. China's strategic interest is bogging down the American foreign policy and military in a conflict with Arab states to distract it from addressing a Chinese threat. That threat is their development of a nuclear offensive capability, a blue water navy, and their expansionist plans in the Spratly Islands, Taiwan, and the waters off Japan.

I can't speak to specific technology transfers, but you should not be surprised if one surfaces.

[DentsRun]

China's strategic interest is bogging down the American foreign policy and military in a conflict with Arab states to distract it from addressing a Chinese threat.

China is encouraging the Islamic fundamentalists to distract us while they re-take Taiwan? I hadn't thought of that. I was thinking the instant we go to war with Iraq they'll have a free hand to do whatever they want in the far east.