U.S. Case for War Turns Up Volume -- France, Germany, Russia, China Drag Feet

USA Today ^ | 1/21/2003 | Barbara Slavin

[ex-Texan]

WASHINGTON

[ex-Texan]

In my opinion France, Germany, Russia, China will be forced to applaud Bush very soon. We have the proof that Saddam has WMD and we will soon show it to the world. IMHO, this may be partly a staged resistance to allow Saddam time to pull the plug .... Of course, the Frogs and Krauts want to play footsie with Saddam in the tub a little bit longer.

Pleeeaaase they cry, a little bit longer ....

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[goodnesswins]

DAY of SUPPORT....FLY your flags (US, a British one, Hungarian, Australian and Japanese one, too if you have them)....and put up your BUSH/CHENEY signs, (and the BIG W's on your SUV's) for the STATE of the UNION next Tuesday, Jan 28th, if you support the President, our MILITARY and the United States of America. PSST....pass it on.

[elbucko]

Of course, the Frogs and Krauts want to play footsie with Saddam in the tub a little bit longer.

Exactly. France and Germany fear the exposure of just how complicit the evidence will show them to be involved in Hussein's weapons programs. The Russians fear being shown as "inept".

[per loin]

Militarily, none of these countries are needed. Further, it is best for us to not have them involved. As this becomes a US/Brit only operation, the disposition of the spoils becomes easier, much easier. Oil is not the primary spoil. As long as it flows, the economy doesn't care who is scraping off some profits. The primary spoils are military ones.

Our biggest military problem in the Middle-East is access. Once we take over Iraq, and build ourselves a couple of huge bases there, we have easy access to all the potential trouble spots in the area, and our bases will not be there at the pleasure of the ruling government, but as a result of military conquest.

Taking Iraq puts our military on the borders of Turkey, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi, Jordan, and Syria.

[NJJ]

Neither weapons inspectors nor US officials have produced "smoking gun" evidence of banned weapons in Iraq.

My concern is that the smoking gun may be a Saddam preemptive strike with whatever WMD he has at our troops in their staging areas where they are concentrated during our final buildup. He could easily convince a few of his Republican Guard to push the buttons before a coup could be initiated and hope that we would be forced to retaliate with a massive response, sufficient to rally Arabs around him. He would do this if he felt he would be going down anyway.

For this reason, I would suspect that we are on alert to immediately trigger a kickoff, sooner rather than later.

[11B3]

The air war can start ahead of the ground war - giving ground assets time to move into position. Really soon.

[Enemy Of The State]

"France, Germany, Russia, China Drag Feet"

So let 'em dance to bullets.

[pepsionice]

If I may be so bold to suggest this. Why not please our dear friends? Lets put 100,000 troops up to surround Saddam, with aircraft carriers sitting safely offshore, simply waiting...and then quietly tell the Germans that we have four major Iraqi Generals ready to shift their forces around and take Saddam and his Republican Guard? Tell the Germans that this is going to happen within seven days...and then sit and watch (and listen via the satellite system) as the Germans run to tell their dear friend Saddam of this terrible thing about to unfold. Saddam will demand to have all his Generals at an immedate meeting...and we broadcast in the open of the report that the Germans are relying onto Saddam....telling his Generals of their impending doom...in which case, they will likely side quickly with the US and take Saddam down as quickly as possible...no blood on our hands...we just walk in...clean the mess and save our bombs. Then GW could call his dear friend Gerhard....and thank him for helping Saddam...and then let him know that we are going to release the entire report within 24 hours unless he resigns. We kill two birds with one stone and help the Germans clean up their mess as well.

[marron]

First, lets be clear what the inspectors job is not. Their job is "not" to go out and find weapons. Their job is to wait by the phone, in case Saddam calls and agrees to hand over his weapons. If that phone call comes, they will witness the handover.

You see, its not that difficult to know what he has. It is a simple task for an intel analyst. You just track his purchases, what kind of tools, parts, materials, he is buying. You look at what kind of stuff that is being smuggled over the border. You look at what kinds of engineers, Iraqi and German, are working and in what numbers.

Based on that, we know what he is doing.

The inspector's job is to witness the handover.

The fact that they have been in country for weeks, and still no handover, that is itself the "smoking gun". All of their visits, their cavorting for the camera, all of that is just to fill the time, since obviously Saddam is never going to call.

As for France, and Russia, and the rest of the UN members, since none of them are going to send troops to fight at our side, their approval is of little importance. What does matter is this: if we are forced to go into battle without the UN's approval, it will finish the UN as a serious world body.

What is on the line right now is the UN's future. They have to decide if they are to be a serious institution, or simply a social club for friends and family of dictators.