One One Thousand, Two One Thousand. . .
Uri Dan writes in the New York Post:
The Israeli prime minister wants to know that the U.S. war planning will ensure that Iraq will not be able to inflict attacks on Israel - as in the Scud salvos of the 1991 Gulf War, but this time with chemical and biological warheads. Bush wants to be assured that Israel will remain completely defensive, since an Israeli retaliatory move against Baghdad, even after heavy casualties, could bring a tough reaction in the Arab world.
Foreign reports reaching Israel say that in preparation for the offensive, U.S. and British bombers attacked an Iraqi control and command center in early September.
Diplomatic reports in the Mideast indicate that when the U.S.-British offensive begins, there will be about 90 days of air raids.
There are two interesting items here. The first is the unwritten assumption that it is in America's interest, although perhaps not Israel's, the Iraq not be turned into irradiated black glass. (I mean no insult to Israel here; were we attacked by biologicial missiles, I doubt we'd show much restraint, either.)
The second item is the idea of "90 days of air raids."
Um, guys? Counting from when? For weeks now, Anglo-American warplanes have been doing an increasingly thorough job dismantling Iraqi air defenses.
A 'tough reaction in the Arab world'? What the hell are they going to do, pull funny faces? If Iraq attacks Israel with WMDs and Israel converts Baghdad into a crematorium (which in the event that an attack like this happens, they absolutely should), then the US (and let's face it, the US is the only game in town) is not going to give a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut what the 'Arab world' thinks. At this point, it would be a very good idea for the Arab world to shut its nasty cakehole and just be thankful we're not as bloodthirsty as they say we are, as evidenced by their continuing existence.
"90 days of (full bore, I assume) air raids??" Twice as long as GW-I?
That is totally in contradiction to everything I have been seeing up to now, including the fact that we do NOT want to, or need to, blast every bridge, power plant, water facility, etc.
I find that hard to believe.
The P.M. must have heard this from some State Dept. puke. The purpose of our actions is to prevent this A**hole and those he supports from a CBR attack upon us. We would neither ask or expect Israel to take such a hit in our place without response. Nor would they.
Of course, Baghdad is likely to be full up with our Special Ops people and we would hate to loose them.
Could we interest you in the cordinates for Tikrit?
A Badabadaboom there would get up close and personal with his Kith and Kin.
This David Gillies hates arabs. He is a racist that cannot see past the unilateral and seemingly identical representation of the middle-east conflict by the US media. Grow up man and learn how to make your own judgement by looking at other countries report of the problems in that region. Oh sorry you only understand english? Call yourself an educated man and only speaks one language? May be you are one of these guys who do not know anything about geopolitics. Ooopsy how could you know anything about geopolitics: you know nothing about geography. DOH!
