Hmm...In retrospect, wasn't it a little peculiar that Bush's Monday-night 48 hour ultimatum speech only demanded the removal of Saddam and his two sons? I mean, wouldn't you have expected a few Special Republican Guard and mukhabarat heads, Tikriti cousins or other senior Ba'ath officials to be on Bush's list?
In the context of psychological warfare operations (aka disinformation) already in progress, it's impossible to tell which of the various defection and desertion rumors flying around may be true. But it's conceivable that resistance by many regular Iraqi Army forces will indeed be minimal. At the very least, some units will likely surrender wholesale sooner than expected. Could there even be a coup in the offing? Just asking... And by the way, what's the US plan for housing all those Iraqi POWs?
According to the news broadcast on BBC America the US will go in to Iraq to hunt down the WMD even if Saddam abdicates.
And at the BBC web site ...
Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz appears on state television to refute rumours that he has fled the country or been killed
Yeah, I wasn't thinking of a classic coup by the Iraqi Army preventing an invasion. Agreed, the Allies are going in very soon.
But the US may want to turn regular Iraqi units to use them either a) against Republican Guard and other special units or b) to assist them police post-Saddam Iraq.
The Aziz rumor is interesting but I don't think that he has much of a career left. He's been in Saddam's government for too long to be a credible in a new regime.
At some point the antiwar movement is going to have to shift its rhetoric, I fear, from anti-invasion to anti-occupation. The latter is a harder sell because then the counterargument is "we have to stay to protect the Kurds and keep the Shiites from breaking away to Iran." Then it's Vietnam again: "If we leave there will be a bloodbath" was the argument I heard over and over growing up. As with Israel, "occupation" will be a taboo word.
Well, we need to stay there to build a democracy.
On a serious note, the Bush administration has been very effective in selling lies to the US public -- the 9/11 connection being the prime example. The media has been unwilling to address this effectively, and now that war is on, they're going into cheerleader mode. Until the antiwar movement can break through the misinformation, it won't have any traction.
is there really such a thing as democracy....demo/crazy
"According to the news broadcast on BBC America the US will go in to Iraq to hunt down the WMD even if Saddam abdicates."
And we damn well better find them. Maybe we'd have better luck working alone, without all those pesky inspectors.
this Washington Post article seems to suggest that we might insist.
"...the White House has decided, for now, to assign no role in the disarmament effort to the key U.N. agencies that were charged by the Security Council with carrying out the search for banned weapons. As recently as the last week of February, U.S. and U.N. officials said, the State Department asked the leading inspection agency, the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, known as UNMOVIC, and the International Atomic Energy Agency for help in the postwar dismantling of Iraq's remaining long-range missiles and nuclear, biological, chemical and missile weapons programs. "
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In the context of psychological warfare operations (aka disinformation) already in progress, it's impossible to tell which of the various defection and desertion rumors flying around may be true. But it's conceivable that resistance by many regular Iraqi Army forces will indeed be minimal. At the very least, some units will likely surrender wholesale sooner than expected. Could there even be a coup in the offing? Just asking... And by the way, what's the US plan for housing all those Iraqi POWs?
- bruno 3-20-2003 12:33 am
According to the news broadcast on BBC America the US will go in to Iraq to hunt down the WMD even if Saddam abdicates.
And at the BBC web site ...
Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz appears on state television to refute rumours that he has fled the country or been killed
- mark 3-20-2003 3:11 am
Yeah, I wasn't thinking of a classic coup by the Iraqi Army preventing an invasion. Agreed, the Allies are going in very soon.
But the US may want to turn regular Iraqi units to use them either a) against Republican Guard and other special units or b) to assist them police post-Saddam Iraq.
The Aziz rumor is interesting but I don't think that he has much of a career left. He's been in Saddam's government for too long to be a credible in a new regime.
- bruno 3-20-2003 6:30 am
At some point the antiwar movement is going to have to shift its rhetoric, I fear, from anti-invasion to anti-occupation. The latter is a harder sell because then the counterargument is "we have to stay to protect the Kurds and keep the Shiites from breaking away to Iran." Then it's Vietnam again: "If we leave there will be a bloodbath" was the argument I heard over and over growing up. As with Israel, "occupation" will be a taboo word.
- tom moody 3-20-2003 6:51 am
Well, we need to stay there to build a democracy.
On a serious note, the Bush administration has been very effective in selling lies to the US public -- the 9/11 connection being the prime example. The media has been unwilling to address this effectively, and now that war is on, they're going into cheerleader mode. Until the antiwar movement can break through the misinformation, it won't have any traction.
- mark 3-20-2003 8:38 am
is there really such a thing as democracy....demo/crazy
- Skinny 3-20-2003 4:46 pm
"According to the news broadcast on BBC America the US will go in to Iraq to hunt down the WMD even if Saddam abdicates."
And we damn well better find them. Maybe we'd have better luck working alone, without all those pesky inspectors.
this Washington Post article seems to suggest that we might insist.
"...the White House has decided, for now, to assign no role in the disarmament effort to the key U.N. agencies that were charged by the Security Council with carrying out the search for banned weapons. As recently as the last week of February, U.S. and U.N. officials said, the State Department asked the leading inspection agency, the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, known as UNMOVIC, and the International Atomic Energy Agency for help in the postwar dismantling of Iraq's remaining long-range missiles and nuclear, biological, chemical and missile weapons programs. "
- steve 3-22-2003 7:57 pm