Saddam is not worth attacking. There are far worse places to be afraid of. North Korea, some Canadians, China.
And there WILL be a very large number of casualties this time. We’re not going to see open tank clashes in the desert. Saddam has dug in outside and inside of Bagdad. Its going to be a war of Street fighting. Imagine the battle of Stalingrad. He’s going to use civilians as shields, and make a damn good show of doing it. And when the time is ripe, he’ll unleash those weapons. He’s gonna do every damn thing he can do to survive.
However, if he provokes us, he has less time to prepare. Less ammunition to stockpile, less time to build trenches. Less time to train his troops in streetfighting. However, that time may never come, if we’re smart.
How about letting those weapons inspectors in, completely free to explore where they want. Saddam could embarress the US by not letting US inspectors in, but letting the UN ones in. Hell, he could not even consult the US in the deal, and gain national support in doing it.
71% of the British population is against their involvement in our attack of Iraq. Only 12% are for it, the rest undecided. There goes our biggest Ally.
Saudi Arabia will only let us use their Air Bases for enforcing the current No Fly Zones, and nothing else. Russia will lend us no help here, mainly their help would be in information gathering and diplomacy. No help is coming from Germany or France obviously. Kuwait won’t let us use their air bases, and only use their territory for defensive action. Turkey is gone until being admitted to the EU, they want their German and French support.
The only country with us today, all out like in 1991, is Bahrain. I don’t think we’re gonna get much done out of there.
So we’re going to operate this entire war off an Aircraft carrier or three. That limits what we can do by a lot. That means its going to be a ground war. How are we going to get troops in there? An amphibious invasion from Afganistan and Bahrain? Marching through the deserts of Jorden? From the mountains of Turkey? All of which stretch supply lines and give Saddam a huge heads up. We’re not talking the Taliban here, Saddam has the best military in the Persian Gulf. Most of it American.
Lets do something that matters. How about establishing a full on democracy in Egypt and Jorden. How about aiding the starving people in Ethiopia? How about working on issues that matter, not political issues.
Dick Cheney gave a speech a few days ago. Probably more hard on Iraq than Bush’s speeches, he openly said diplomacy has ended. Although I don’t think this is an offical statement, Bush has long stopped thinking of diplomatic solutions. All of the people who went to Iraq in 91 are opposed to the war. Even Colin Powell is.
A recent poll by Newsweek showed 51% of Americans are opposed to an attack on Iraq. Let me quote our favorite host of the daily show.
“The President wants to attaq Iraq, even through the growing small groups of opposition, like… NATO and … Russia … and a small group of Americans known as a growing group of Americans.”