Posted on 04/27/2002 9:22:16 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
The Bush administration, in developing a potential approach for toppling President Saddam Hussein of Iraq, is concentrating its attention on a major air campaign and ground invasion, with initial estimates contemplating the use of 70,000 to 250,000 troops.
The administration is turning to that approach after concluding that a coup in Iraq would be unlikely to succeed and that a proxy battle using local forces there would be insufficient to bring a change in power.
But senior officials now acknowledge that any offensive would probably be delayed until early next year, allowing time to create the right military, economic and diplomatic conditions. These include avoiding summer combat in bulky chemical suits, preparing for a global oil price shock, and waiting until there is progress toward ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Until recently, the administration had contemplated a possible confrontation with Mr. Hussein this fall, after building a case at the United Nations that the Iraqi leader is unwilling to allow the kind of highly intrusive inspections needed to prove that he has no weapons of mass destruction.
Now that schedule seems less realistic. Conflict in the Middle East has widened a rift within the administration over whether military action can be undertaken without inflaming Arab states and prompting anti-American violence throughout the region.
Basic message: NOT BEFORE NOVEMBERWe leak old drunk driving charges and indict beforeelections. You play by Queen of Marbury(?) rules
As for Ariel Sharon's invasions of the West Bank and Gaza: If that turmoil prevents or delays a far greater slaughter from getting going, one that will kill thousands of American men and women, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, and risk nuclear war, I could live with it.
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