Posted on 08/16/2002 7:27:32 PM PDT by kattracks
A defiant Iraq warned the United States it would be taught a lesson it will never forget if it launched a military campaign against Saddam Hussein's regime, threats of which it said left the Iraqi people unbowed.
"The Iraqis are ready to engage in a war against the United States and are determined to teach the Americans a lesson they will never forget," the official Al-Iraq newspaper vowed Friday.
"Statements and threats by American officials cannot terrorise the people of Iraq because their victory over the United States is guaranteed," the daily said.
Ath-Thawra, mouthpiece of the ruling Baath party in Baghdad, accused Washington of "adopting a policy of lies towards Iraq by making believe that the country produces weapons of mass destruction."
The papers were reacting to statements Thursday by US President George W. Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, that there was a "very powerful moral case" for ousting the Iraqi leader.
"This is an evil man who, left to his own devices, will wreak havoc again on his own population, his neighbours and, if he gets weapons of mass destruction and the means to deliver them, all of us," she said.
In Washington, the State Department said overnight it believed paperwork would soon be completed to allow an eight-million-dollar grant for the Iraqi National Congress (INC), an umbrella of Iraqi opposition groups, to go through after a three-month delay.
"We discussed the offer with the Iraqi National Congress leadership over the course of the last week and we do anticipate finalising an agreement very soon," deputy spokesman Philip Reeker said.
"We're anxious to continue our support ... for the Iraqi National Congress," Reeker said. "We believe that the INC can continue to play a productive and useful role through the activities proposed in our new agreement."
The money is to go to fund the INC newspaper, television station and regional offices, including an office of humanitarian relief, he said.
Reeker's comments came a week after representatives of six Iraqi opposition groups, including the INC, met here with senior US officials including Secretary of State Colin Powell and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to discuss ways in which Saddam Hussein could be ousted.
Meanwhile, Britain's Independent newspaper reported Friday that Iraq would agree to the return of UN arms inspectors if they were accompanied by neutral observers including British religious leaders.
Quoting unnamed senior diplomatic sources, the daily said Baghdad will send a letter to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan demanding that any observers ensure the inspections were not spying missions.
The letter would also demand that "doctored findings of weapons of mass destruction" were not used to justify a US attack against Saddam's regime, the sources told the paper.
Iraq would insist that a large proportion of the delegation came from Europe, and that the United Nations not let the US administration veto its composition, the Independent added.
The Guardian daily reported that British Prime Minister Tony Blair has blocked a debate by his cabinet on whether Britain should join US-led military action against Iraq.
The paper said ministers had been told that any decisions were still a long way off when they had approached Blair privately to ask for a cabinet discussion of the issue.
Blair is Bush's closest ally in Europe on the Iraq question, despite opinion polls which suggest that a majority of Britons do not want British troops to join a US-led strike on Baghdad.
Iraq orders Baghdadis to stay put
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug 15, 2002 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- Iraqi authorities have ordered Baghdad residents to stay put and warned that their money and property will be confiscated if they leave the city without permission, according to a well-informed Iraqi Kurdish source.
The measures were taken, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity, to prevent people fleeing the capital in anticipation of a U.S. military strike.
According to unconfirmed reports, government officials in Baghdad have been selling their properties and changing their Iraqi dinars for hard currency.
The new measures were also aimed at preventing people from avoiding being recruited into militias, such as the Popular Army, Saddam Forces and the Jerusalem Army, the source said.
Saddam will be lucky to be alive a half hour into the war...he won't see the next day, unless he runs away before the shooting starts.
I can see him telling his stooges to let go the missles as he scurries into hiding somewhere far away.
"The Iraqis are ready to engage in a war against the United States and are determined to teach the Americans a lesson they will never forget," the official Al-Iraq newspaper vowed Friday.With:
Ath-Thawra, mouthpiece of the ruling Baath party in Baghdad, accused Washington of "adopting a policy of lies towards Iraq by making believe that the country produces weapons of mass destruction."
They lie. Either they do in fact produce weapons of mass destruction, or their threat to teach the US a lesson it will never forget is nothing but braggadocio without any substance behind it. I think prudence requires that we believe the former, and not the latter.
Dont bring too much stuff with you. Most will just rust, and wont see action.
Be prepared for the worst. Iraqis can surrender faster, and in greater numbers that even our allies, the French. Lots of food, water, and latrine facilities will be essential.
The main meat in the Iraqi diet (if they are lucky, or if lots of officers are captured)is lamb. Lamb causes B.O. big time! Have soap, handi-wipes, and deodorant on hand, and be prepared to teach the proper use of all three!
Dont believe anything they say. Period. End sentence!
If/when push comes to shove, God be with you!
Regards (with tongue firmly in cheek)
a lesson i will never forget...hmmmm...let's see:
iraq = idiotic rantings advocating quitting
did i pass???
Could we, just for once, NOT send US dollars overseas.
I sure hope they have in mind teaching us how to properly make halvah, and not baklavah! We're semi OK with baklavah, but man, you can't find decent halvah anywhere around these parts.
I was wondering. Let's say you had a large population of morons. Let's say the average IQ of this population was 45. If the top ten percent of the population had an IQ of 75, would they then be the "elite"?
There's a joke in there somewhere but I'll let sharper wits than mine have at it. My dad was a lowly shavetail lieutenant in Italy 1943-44, and he tells the story of having to wait outside an Italian colonel's bivouac while the colonel shaved and put on his good uniform before he surrendered what was left of his regiment to my dad.
I hasten to add that dad has always said that the Italians individually were very brave men, they were doomed by bad leadership, bad planning, and incredibly bad equipment (such as the awful Carcano rifle and the Breda, possibly the single worst machine gun in the war).
Saddam might have something he wants to use against relatively concentrated American troops.
"Statements and threats by American officials cannot terrorise the people of Iraq because their victory over the United States is guaranteed," the daily said.
It's not about terrorizing the Iraqi people. It's about removing and probably killing Saddam, Uday, and the rest of the murderous family.
"This is an evil man who, left to his own devices, will wreak havoc again on his own population, his neighbours and, if he gets weapons of mass destruction and the means to deliver them, all of us," she said.
Yep.
Quoting unnamed senior diplomatic sources, the daily said Baghdad will send a letter to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan demanding that any observers ensure the inspections were not spying missions.
The letter would also demand that "doctored findings of weapons of mass destruction" were not used to justify a US attack against Saddam's regime, the sources told the paper.
I don't think Kofi Annan is in a position to guarantee you anything. Unless he wants to put forces on the ground to protect you. Which of course, minus the United States, will leave you with Ghana's best.......
Blair is Bush's closest ally in Europe on the Iraq question, despite opinion polls which suggest that a majority of Britons do not want British troops to join a US-led strike on Baghdad.
So don't join then. Would be nice to have you along for the ride, but we don't need you.
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