Free Republic

Galaxy, Globemaster and Hercules transports are now flying night and day over the Gulf, ferrying their share of a mountain of equipment the United States must put in place before it is fully ready for war with Iraq. Most land or take off from two hub bases here in Qatar after dark, but there is nothing covert about their low roar over Doha city. If, as some reports suggest, President George W. Bush is considering giving Iraq six more weeks to comply with United Nations demands, it is not simply diplomatic calculation or patience: his military needs that extra time...

The US will go to war against Iraq two weeks after Haj, which is scheduled to end Feb. 13, a former deputy secretary at the US Defense Department told Arab News yesterday. “During this massive air attack, the last thing you want is cluttered airspace,” a former deputy secretary at the Defense Department told Arab News. The “buzz” at the Pentagon, he said, is that Gulf War II will begin two weeks after Haj, before the end of February. “The big thing is that you don’t want, right after Eid Al-Adha, hundreds of airplanes flying all over the place, and...