[DaGman]

I don't know who Jonathan Rhodes is but I wonder who the guy thinks he is. Apparently he sees his self as more informed and insightful than the likes of Brent Scowcroft, Henry Kissinger, Stormin' Norman, Dick Armey and even Zbigniew Brzenski.

His "out of the mainstream" venue of publication appears to serve little more of a purpose than to appeal to and motivate those who would support a war that has virtually no public support in this country and much less worldwide.

Rhodes speaks of disinformation by Iraq but it appears he is engaging in the same... quoting Debka? C'mon, really.

[VaBthang4]

"a war that has virtually no public support in this country"

Another creator of magic sentences not supported by facts. Back it up with legitimate polling numbers [The only way you could discern public support] or from here on out I'll beat you over the head with this quote.

[defenderSD]

You're misinformed about the level of public support for military action against Iraq. Recent polls show about 65% of Americans favor a pre-emptive strike against Iraq. I agree that support is definitely lower overseas.

[efnwriter]

Thank you for reading my article and your comments. IMHO I have not compared myself to any of the men you mentioned and do not seek to elevate myself to their level of knowlege or expertise. I happen to disagree with Scocroft that Saddam can be contained. Remember that Scocroft was Bush Sr.'s National Security Advisor - and probably advised not finishing the job against Saddam back in '91. I have not read that Schwartzkopf is against invading Iraq - I have not read anything by him on the subject. If you have a reference please let me know.

You are absolutely correct that I support a military operation to remove Saddam Hussein and his regimen from the face of the earth. You apparantly disagree and you are welcome to your opinion. Please post it.

The article was written looking at the situation from Saddam's military point of view. In general, as several other commentators have said, Sadam has no chance straight up against the US armed forces. I believe he will not back down and therefore has few options. The scenario I posted is one option.

One last item - there is very little regard for DEBKAfile out there, but I still think their take on why Iran would be involved is not, IMHO, far fetched. Iran has been trying to go nuclear and has a relatively advanced missile program operating out of Khorramabad. See
http://www..fas.org/nuke/guide/iran/facility/khorramabad.htm and http://216.239.51.100/search?q=cache:yNUR3ddf3AsC:cns.miis.edu/pubs/npr/vol06/64/db64.pdf+KhorramAbad+nuclear&hl=en&lr=lang_en&ie=UTF-8