Posted on 08/15/2002 8:42:32 AM PDT by frmrda
U.S. letter to Arab leaders: 'There will be no turning back'
SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM Thursday, August 15, 2002 LONDON — The United States has warned Arab leaders to prepare public opinion for a change in the Iraqi regime.
Diplomatic sources said the Bush administration has sent letters to the leaders of Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and other Arab states in the Middle East. The letters, said to be nearly identical, assert that Washington is determined to topple the regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
U.S. officials did not confirm the message, Middle East Newsline reported. But in Washington, U.S. National Security Council Adviser Condoleezza Rice stressed in an interview on Thursday with the British Broadcasting Corp. that the Bush administration has presented a powerful case for toppling Saddam.
"We certainly do not have the luxury of doing nothing," Ms. Rice said. "We believe the case for regime change is very powerful."
The London-based Al Hayat daily reported on Thursday that the text of the letters said Washington was preparing a military strike against Baghdad that would include the use of air force bases in the Middle East. The letters reported that the United States was deploying soldiers in the region and transporting a range of unspecified weapons for the attack on the Saddam regime.
"There will be no turning back from the military option," Al Hayat quoted the letters as saying.
A U.S. official said the Bush administration has sent envoys to the Middle East to relay the U.S. determination to destroy the Saddam regime.
The official, who did not want to be identified, said the Defense Department has been meeting with Arab analysts and journalists in an effort to sway public opinion against Iraq. The Pentagon has also discussed with Saudi nationals likely Iraqi targets of any U.S. war and distributed satellite photographs of sensitive Iraqi installations, including Saddam's palaces.
[On Wednesday, U.S. Central Command reported that British and U.S. fighter-jets struck two Iraqi anti-aircraft batteries in southern Iraq. A Central Command statement said the allied aircraft used precision-strike weapons.]
At the same time, the United States has urged Arab allies to help Iraqi opposition forces, which were said to have been given a limited military role in the campaign against Saddam. A delegation of Iraqi opposition leaders who visited Washington last week is planning a tour of Arab countries and Iran. The visit is said to have been in coordination with the State Department and the Iraqi National Congress, the largest umbrella opposition group and financed by the United States.
An Iraqi opposition source said the delegation will focus on Saudi Arabia, the most reluctant U.S. ally to support a regime change in Baghdad. The source said Egypt has signalled its readiness to help in any U.S.-led war against Saddam.
69% of the American people disagree with you. And that's "Bush" or "President Bush" bubba.
The truth of the assertion, that we are preparing to move against Saddam, is undeniable. I don't think it will be nearly as soon as you are thinking, unless we are getting a lot of disinformation about the progress on the new base being built in Qatar. It appears that it has a few months more construction before it is completed, and I would think that we'd need that ready to go before launching something big.
That would also be consistent with needing more time to finish stockpiling JDAMs and other precision bombs that were seriously depleted by the end of the Afghanistan mission. Of course, we could be getting disinformation on that matter as well, but if those reports are true, I wouldn't expect anything before Thanksgiving, at the earliest.
Inspiring thoughts from a man who's now a corpse.
Saddam is the next dead man.
The case will be made, unless you haven't been paying attention, in this democracy we call America, the case is always made... No matter what... sheez... some people just don't get it. I seem to remember Tony Blair saying something to the effect of when the evidence needs to be presented it will be. Right now, they are just getting their ducks in a row. Protecting the country is a clandestine business, why do people feel they have to know everything exactly when it happens? Kind of ruins the element of surprise.
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