Posted on 09/19/2002 8:46:50 AM PDT by Heartlander2
Saddam is warned: We'd nuke Baghdad
By TREVOR KAVANAGH
AMERICA will NUKE Baghdad if Saddam Hussein dares unleash weapons of mass destruction, it emerged last night.
The chilling warning to Iraq was revealed by former Tory Premier John Major, who led Britain in the 1991 Gulf War.
During that conflict, allied forces were armed with battlefield nuclear weapons and prepared to use them in a counter attack, he said.
Saddam was privately warned his capital would be obliterated if he used weapons of mass destruction against allied troops or Middle East targets including Israel.
And senior security sources last night confirmed Saddam has been warned AGAIN of the consequences if he breaks the ban on using terror weapons.
Mr Major wrote of the Gulf War: In private, Saddam Hussein received an unmistakable warning about the immediate and catastrophic consequences for Iraq of any such attack on civilians.
I knew that if he did use these diabolical weapons we would have to escalate our response to bring the war to a speedy and conclusive end before too many of our troops were exposed to them. Mr Major yesterday supported renewed action but raised questions about the way a cornered Saddam might lash out.
He said: On this occasion we will specifically be going to war in order to replace the Iraqi regime. Saddam will be gone.
He will be dead, he will be in prison, or he will be in exile. Would he try to create maximum chaos? Would he seek to use weapons of mass destruction?
Would he use them on oil fields in the Middle East to create economic chaos? Would he pass them to terrorist groups, would he perhaps the worst nightmare of all try to use them on an adjacent capital?
We can largely protect against that, do not press me on how, we can protect against that.
Saddam targeted Jerusalem with 39 Scud missiles in 1991 killing two and injuring hundreds in an attempt to drag Israel into the fighting.
He had chemical and biological warheads too but chose not to use them in the face of Americas warning.
Yesterday Israeli forces moved Patriot missile launchers which take out incoming rockets into position in case Saddam targets them again.
Pressure was building on Iraq as a British ex-UN official warned that sending in weapons inspectors is a no-win move because Saddam would hide his arsenal.
Tim Trevan, an expert on biological weapons, said: I dont think sending in weapons inspectors is a good idea, but it may be a necessary thing to do because of the political situation.
We know he had anthrax and botulinum toxin and we know he had nerve gases.
We never found all his equipment and hes had four years to build new production facilities underground. The job of finding them would be nigh on impossible.
If he is going down, he will be glad to take his country down with him the same as Hitler, who in the end damned his people as unworthy of him.
There is much discussion of why we can have nukes and other heavy military equipment, and Russia and China, even France and India can have them, but Iraq cannot, especially considering that we are the only country to have ever used them.
I think we have to consider not the possession or use of them, but the circumstances. We haven't threatened our neighbors with these weapons. We won't use them in that way. neither will the other countries. But Iraq will.
Just as with a person having personal firearms, almost everyone is responsible in the possession of such weapons. But the isolated person who uses his firearms or other weapons in an aggressive manner will find the community moves to disarm him. Such is the case with Iraq.
Why do you think that because some folks want to take out some of our enemies - enemies that plan to destroy us - that they'd also like to blow up the whole damn world? Did Mexicans or Peruvians fly planes into the WTC and Pentagon? Of course not. But Saudis did, and there's mounting evidence to suggest that Saddam was also involved. Your descent into outrageous hyperbole is ridiculous.
The smoking lamp is lit!!!
I go after the yellow-jackets in my roof eaves for exactly that reason. Termites, too. They'll get my infrastructure unless I wipe 'em out.
And yes, I think of terrorists and Muslims as nothing more than yellow-jackets and termites. They exist only to hurt me and destroy my property.
There is a difference, you know.
Yeah, as Mad Halfbright might say, nuke 'em if ya got 'em.
Less ridiculous than the utterly irrational thought -- or lack of -- expressed earlier, implying that in destroying Mecca or the Saudis or others who some people have a beef with our War on Terrorism will end.
Au contraire, mon ami. That would be just the beginning.
Did you think it was wrong to send troops to Haiti (I did), Bosnia, Kosovo, (I did).....or are you just republican bashing.
The bad guy over there has been continuing to develope weapons that could de-populate cities, and he is trying to obtain weapons that would remove cities from the world map. No country has the ability to stop him except the USA. Now again, forget about hatred; What would you do?
Unless you occupied them for a hundred years. But if that's the way it's got to be, so be it. To the victor goes the spoils.
It seems like not much has changed in thousands of years. The barbarians are still out there, trying to pillage the city-state, only now the city-state is much larger and richer and more tempting a prize than ever. And the only way to save the civilization within the city walls is to annihilate the barbarians and rule their descendents through the ages with an iron fist, until the barbarian in them somehow becomes nomadic trader and the larger vision of conquest they hold is lost to myth.
That ought to hold them back for another thousand years or so. By then we'll have made it to the stars.
Do whatever is necessary. To the victor goes the oils.
Unfortunately members of the Bush 41 adminstration already told the world that it was all a bluff the last time and we never had any intention of using nukes under any circumstances. So there's scant chance Saddam will believe them this time.
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