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A couple of days ago, I would have said the night of the first new moon after the end of the Haj, to avoid the considerable civilian air traffic in the region as the Haj season ends.

After the President's speech today, I suspect it will be sooner than that, maybe even this weekend. (and to think some commentators regarded the speech as expressing a willingness to compromise and wait for the UN to authorize action!)

But in a very real sense, the attack has already begun. It has been reported (in Time, among other places) that American Special Ops are already inside Iraq, and that Turkish troops have crossed the border to set up refugee camps for the expected Kurdish refugees, whom they would rather keep in Iraq than let into Turkey. The British and American airstrikes in the "no-fly" zones have apparently been hitting more than just anti-aircraft sites which made the fatal error of firing on Allied planes for some time now. to paraphrase Patrick Henry, "the gentlemen may cry 'Peace! Peace!', but our brethren are already in the field. The next wind that blows from the East will bring to our ears the resounding clash of arms.!"

VietVet