Pentagon sources: U.S. attack on Iraq may be postponed to end of March (Army Radio)

Haaretz.com NEWS FLASH ^ | 3/3/03 | Haaretz

[Mark Felton]

Pentagon sources: U.S. attack on Iraq may be postponed to end of March, beginning of April (Army Radio)

[This is all that is available on the News Flash at this time].

[TheLooseThread]

Hmmm. Not good. Weather is gonna get bad.

[Mr. Mojo]

I'm pulling for you Miss Marple, believe me I am. Your bet could hinge on a day or two....or perhaps even hours.

[MatthewViti]

ping

[Gorzaloon]

This could very well be a disinformation campaign to throw off Saddam's forces.

Since this morning there were posts from sources predicting the war would start the 8th or so, I would not be surprised. It seems to change evcery four hours.

So if people's patience is being tried, that's a good sign, IMO. Saddam must be going bonkers.

[RightWhale]

If we have not gone in by the end of March, I'm changing my voter registration - goodbye Pubbies!

Don't forget to return the duct tape and drop cloth to the hardware store on the way out.

[KansasConservative]

April Fools Day FWIW

Maybe we're waiting for daylight savings time April 6th. This whole thing is getting tiresome. Bush should not be out saying "weeks not months" "final chance" "last chance" its comical.

[XEHRpa]

Bingo! As I said on anther thread the other day...

Interesting coverage on Fox. They had Mansoor Ijaz, their Middle East expert, on Rita Cosby's Sunday evening news program earlier this evening, and he laid out some interesting timelines. It seems, the tip that led to this guys capture came several weeks ago from an anonymous tip in some other Arab country (UAE, was it?)

The breakthrough was so profound that they soon figured out on whose trail they were, and Ijaz thinks that many other big Al Queda fish are in the offing in the coming days.

It leads me to wonder whether the Iraqi campaign really had been slated for execution this weekend, but postponed by Bush, on the basis of this fast and furious info coming in on this Pakistani trail.

We had Saddam detroying a missile or three, I think expecting us to commence hostilities with 117 of his missiles left intact. Now if we delay, for other strategic reasons, he'll have to come up with new excuses in the next week, why he can not continue destroying multiple missles per day.

I'm amazed at Bush's patience. But if these top AQ can provide vital intelligence info, it is possible a delay of days to weeks could save significant lives.

[ChicagoRepublican]

No. Saddam is a clever man prone to commiting major errors because his inner circle fears providing the requisite information. This period of time is just letting Hussein prepare for the war, and ready weapons of mass destruction. What country is gonna sit on its ass while its enemy is conducting a Phony War.

[VRWC_minion]

The pentagon will be a great source to get the start time for the Iraq war. Why I'm sure they plan on e-mailing Saddam with their exact plans.

[rwfromkansas]

who knows......it about drives me crazy waiting though.

[ConservativeConvert]

I consider the Free Republic to be a relatively legitimate gague of conservative opinion and it is clear that Bush's support base is starting to lose patience with him. The number of disaffected posts should be taken very seriously as a real indication of waning confidence. What does this say about the future of this venture and the administration in general? It would seem that should there be additional indefinite delays that the mood does not bode well for this administration.

[VRWC_minion]

Meanwhile, in an apparent quickening of the pace to war, President Bush and Blair are reported by at least one British paper to have decided on a 21-day deadline.

The paper said the two men, who had a 30-minute telephone conversation on Thursday, had agreed to give Saddam Hussein until March 14 to disarm or face war.

[VRWC_minion]

The number of disaffected posts should be taken very seriously as a real indication of waning confidence.

It was the same before Afghanistan. All sorts of dates were thrown out. When it came no one remembered being impatient. What we found was that Bush had given his military the green light to go and it was up to them to pick the exact start time.

It is clear that strategically their is a trade off between waiting for our intelligence to gather as much hard data regarding targets, our troops getting set up along with whatever backup we need and the future weather conditions etc.

Personally, I believe the politics are not dictating our start date at this time. I believe the start date is up to the pentagon as Bush has done before.

[xzins]

Make no mistake.

We can fight this war in the summer.

It will just take on a different form. It could be long months of bombardment and softening up until the weather for troop engagement improves.

Or, it could be such massive, overwhelming bombardment that there will be no need for the troops to be in chemical suits.

[sargunner]

I was wondering how long it would be before we heard another 'disinformation' or 'it's all part of the plan' opinion to show up.

[Scott from the Left Coast]

And two weeks from now there will be a flash that "now Pentagon planners are targeting the first of May".

Can all of this get any more ludicrous?

[Beck_isright]

I'm feeling worse. That this is going to be a FUBAR which will cost 20,000 lives. And I will pin that on Powell and Bush if that happens. If it does not start by March 8, Sadamn will have even more time to set traps. This is idiocy supreme and a disaster awaiting our military.

[slimer]

good bye fair weather feind

[slimer]

Keep the faith. It's going to happen.

[Stefan Stackhouse]

Actually there would be tremendous irony in the April new moon, as that falls on April Fools Day.

So is the plan to announce on March 31st that the inspections have worked, and invasion will not be necessary, and we will proceed to pull out . . . and then on the wee hours (Bagdad time) of April 1, we give Saddam a big "April Fool's" joke?