Posted on 03/06/2003 6:38:55 AM PST by Dog
Breaking over the wires...
8 PM is Prime Time. He won't announce that the war has begun because he would do that from the oval office. He will set a time limit and allow the idiot press to ask enough questions to fogure out that Saddam has only 2 weeks left, regardless of all their peacenick friends protests.
IMHO, extremely uncharacteristic....and odd, especially for a President who prides himself on punctuality.....missing/cancelling an event goes beyond "just being late."
Biggest potential difference is that the East room allows for an audience. I would expect a press conference of some form.
The Oval Office doesn't have room for an audience. Just the man, the desk and the camera.
It's a "sharing" situation in the East Room; the Oval Office is used for gravely "telling" you something, period.
It's a purely perceptive difference. I don't think that it'll matter one damn bit for tonight.
Whenever Saddam is awake.
Yep, this is the "Time Limit" speach he was going to give next week. I'm glad he's doing it sooner rather than later.
Unless the nets truly don't know...(which is VERY possible)
At night time.
We have this from the BBC:
Iraq air patrols doubled
By Nick Childs
BBC Pentagon correspondentIncreased military activity could mask the start of any conflict
US defence officials have said aircraft from the US and British forces enforcing the southern no-fly zone in Iraq have more than doubled the number of their patrols.
Pentagon planners hope that by dramatically increasing flights in this way, they will be able to mask the start of any conflict.
It also means pilots can familiarise themselves with the terrain.
Apparently for the same reason, the United States announced last week that B-52 bomber crews had begun training in the north Arabian Gulf.
Military officials say any new conflict will be much more devastating than the last Gulf War.
Unlike in 1991, a combination of simultaneous or near simultaneous air and ground assaults will try to shock the Iraqis into early defeat, they say.
Minimising casualties
But the man who would be in charge of any attack, General Tommy Franks, has insisted that the Americans will do everything they can to minimise casualties.
Clearly sensitive to the issue of innocent civilian casualties, the Pentagon has been briefing reporters on the lengths it now goes to select targets, choose particular weapons for particular targets, work out the best direction from which to strike an objective and even select the best time of day to attack a target.
Military officials say in any new war up to 70% of the weapons used will be precision so-called smart systems compared to just 7% in 1991.
But they also concede that there are no guarantees.
Up to one in 10 of the smart bombs go wrong, they say, mistakes are made and Iraq could use human shields or place military targets in civilian areas.
But if he then decides to wait and garner support, those same people turn faster than a hooker in a cheap whorehouse. I'm trusting the guy on the decision to go to war, so I'm going to trust him as to timing and methods as well.
We may not ever get that support. But the fact that he tried so hard to do that is important, and a fact he can sell to the American people. Plus, it lets him really point a nastier finger at the U.N. when this is all over and he was proven right:
"The U.S. tried to get your support. Nobody can claim that we didn't make every effort possible effort to unite the U.N. on this issue. We pleaded, we begged, and it did not matter. So we went ahead anyway, and the world is a better place because of it. We were right."
He doesn't have to say it, but it will be obvious. Jam their noses right in it and make them inhale.
Add this to the fact that the UN is evacuating Iraq ..... it's looks like war is on.
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