US about to launch major military aggression against Iraq

In response to recent loss of an aircraft over Iraq, Western authorities leaded by USA expressed several provocative thoughts about potential measures against Iraq if it doesn't resume subordinating to West. Iraq is again blamed for everything.
The following is a series of articles supplied by Reuters to show the seriousness of situtation.



By Paul Taylor, Diplomatic Editor

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Prospects of a military clash
between Iraq and United States are growing in the run-up to the
U.S. presidential election, diplomats say, but the Clinton
administration is sure to weigh the political risks carefully.

U.S., British and Kuwaiti officials say the Iraqi air force
has been flying provocative missions in the last two weeks to
challenge Western-imposed no-fly zones over northern and
southern Iraq. One jet violated Saudi airspace, they said.

Baghdad has revived old accusations that Kuwait is stealing
its oil and threatened to take unspecified measures against the
neighbor in invaded in 1990, sparking the 1991 Gulf War.

The Iraqi air force had recently fired a new air-to-air
missile in an exercise, showing an upgraded capability to
threaten U.S. and British planes patrolling the no-fly zones,
which Iraq does not recognize, one source said.

``The West has been holding back so far, but if this pattern
of provocation continues, I'd be very surprised if we get
through the next few weeks without some serious military
action,'' a senior Western diplomat said.

Such action would likely involve major U.S. and British air
strikes on Iraqi air bases, he said.

In Washington, White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said the
United States was deeply committed to stopping Saddam
threatening his neighbors or rebuilding his weapons of mass
destruction.

``He has had times where he's miscalculated. But he should
not miscalculate our resolve,'' he told reporters Friday.

Saddam Seen Exploiting U.S. Campaign

Western officials believe President Saddam Hussein, true to
past form, will exploit the sensitive U.S. campaign season to
dramatize Iraq's opposition to U.N. economic sanctions and try
to embarrass President Clinton (search.news.yahoo.com/search/news?p=President%20Clinton&c=&n=10&yn=c - web sites).

They said the White House had discussed plans for a range
of eventualities, including Iraqi military action against the
Kurds, an attack on Western aircraft or on Kuwait, and the risk
that Saddam might play with oil exports to send world prices
through the roof before the Nov. 7 U.S. vote.

Among Iraq's current tactics are an attempt to break a
decade-old civil aviation boycott by starting civilian flights
from Russia and trying to bring in a planeload of anti-
sanctions activists from France.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright warned Iraq on
Thursday that Washington stood ready to take military action if
Baghdad threatened its neighbors.

``We do have a credible force in the region and are prepared
to use it in an appropriate way at a time of our choosing,''
Albright told a news conference.

Diplomats said she discussed possible Iraqi actions that
might prompt a military response with Foreign Secretary Robin
Cook of Britain, Washington's closest ally on Iraq, on the
sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly this week.

Albright was also due to meet Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince
Abdullah in New York Friday night as fears of a U.S.-Iraqi
confrontation helped push oil prices close to 10-year highs.

Diplomats said Washington would look to Riyadh, the world's
biggest oil producer, to use its spare capacity to boost crude
production if Iraq's 2.3 million barrels a day in exports were
taken off the market.

RELUCTANT WARRIORS?

Sources familiar with U.S. thinking said the administration
was reluctant to be drawn into a clash, and while U.S. forces
in the Gulf had been placed on higher alert, commanders had
been instructed not to over-react to minor transgressions.

A Pentagon spokesman said there had been no appreciable
increase or decrease in U.S. forces in the region in the last
six months to a year and stressed they had seen no Iraqi troop
or equipment movement unusual for this time of year.

Anthony Cordesman, a respected Middle East expert at the
Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington,
said there was a real risk of ``an October surprise.''

``Nobody is gung-ho, but certainly there has been increasing
readiness and they have seriously considered the options to
escalate if Saddam escalates,'' he said.

The United States would not initiate action in response to
the Saudi air incursion or verbal threats, but any sign of a
serious Iraqi military initiative against Kuwait would draw a
massive and swift air response, he said.

Experts said the domestic political impact was a major
factor in the administration's calculations about Iraq.

The risk was that any military action would merely remind
voters that a defiant Saddam is still in power, making the
Clinton administration look ineffectual and rubbing off on Vice
President Al Gore (search.news.yahoo.com/search/news?p=Al%20Gore&c=&n=10&yn=c - web sites), the Democratic candidate.

Reminder Of Failures

``It would be a reminder of the failures of the Clinton
administration over eight years,'' said Philip Gordon, a White
House National Security Council official until last year.

``It would be classic Saddam to try to take his revenge in
the last two months of this administration by embarrassing the
president and taking advantage of our unwillingness to act,''
said Gordon, now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

He said the administration did not want to have to bomb
Iraq again, but there was a broad public consensus on the need
to be tough with Saddam.

``The question is how much of a provocation we would need to
see before we act,'' he said.

Republican candidate George W. Bush (search.news.yahoo.com/search/news?p=George%20W.%20Bush&c=&n=10&yn=c - web sites)'s ability to use any
incident with Iraq against Gore was limited by the fact that it
was his father, ex-president George Bush, who left Saddam in
power at the end of the Gulf War, Gordon said.

Diplomats said Washington would not need to reinforce its
forces in the Gulf region to take military action.

The U.S. military has just under 200 aircraft, including
helicopters, and about 20,000 personnel in the area, including
the George Washington aircraft carrier battle group.

(additional reporting by David Storey and Tabassum Zakaria in
Washington)

Copyright REUTERS (http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000915/wl/iraq_usa_dc_3.html)

Thursday September 14 5:31 PM ET

U.S. Says Ready to Use Force Against Iraq




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By Jonathan Wright


UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United States warned Iraq on Thursday it stood
ready to use military force if Baghdad threatens its neighbors, after Iraq
accused Kuwait of stealing its oil and an Iraqi jet violated Saudi air space.


``We do have a credible force in the region and are prepared to use it in an
appropriate way at a time of our choosing,'' Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright told a news conference.


She said the U.S. military option came into play ``if there are attacks or
provocations against the Kurds in the north, if there are threats against the
neighbors and against our forces or a reconstitution of the weapons of mass
destruction.''


Albright, speaking on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York,
was skeptical of the Iraqi allegation against Kuwait and said the United States
disapproved of Russian plans to start civilian flights into Baghdad.


``After almost 10 years of dealing with this issue, I genuinely have trouble
believing one word out of the mouth of any Iraqi,'' she said. A senior aide said
she was referring to Iraqi officials, not to Iraqis in general.


A State Department official said earlier on Thursday that an Iraqi military
plane flew briefly over Saudi Arabia last week in an incursion Washington saw as
a possible attempt to create a crisis during the U.N. Millennium Summit in New
York.


``One question that people have is whether these overflights have not been
carefully orchestrated in order to create a confrontational atmosphere during
the Millennium Summit and during the General Assembly,'' Albright said.


The New York Times on Thursday said the Sept. 4 incursion over Saudi Arabia
was the first in nearly a decade.


A Pentagon spokesman would say only that Iraqi planes entered the southern
``no-fly'' zone that day, and that British and American planes which patrol that
area did not respond because they were not flying at the time.


Old Complaint Against Kuwait


But on Thursday, the allied planes bombed a radar site in southern Iraq
because of ``a series of provocations'' over the past several days including
Iraq firing surface-to-air missiles, Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral Craig
Quigley said.


Iraq sparked concern in the international community on Thursday when it
resurrected an old complaint against Kuwait, saying it would take unspecified
measures to stop what it called sabotage and theft of Baghdad's oil.


``Iraq will take suitable measures which will guarantee its and the Arab
nations' rights to control its oil wealth and employ it for the interest of the
whole Arab nation rather than achieve vicious American policy,'' Iraqi Oil
Minister Amir Muhammed Rasheed said, according to the Iraqi News Agency.



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Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheik Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah denied the allegation.
``We haven't stolen anything. If you take from your own land it can't be
stealing,'' he told Reuters.


The United States is watching Iraq closely but at the moment there did not
appear to be any troop movements that appeared out of the ordinary, Quigley
said.


``This is a time of year that we pay particular attention to what is going on
inside Iraq,'' he said.


It is typically at the end of Iraq's military training cycle when Baghdad
tends to become more aggressive, U.S. defense officials said, noting the August
1990 invasion of Kuwait.


The United States was watching for Iraqi military activity that appeared
``larger, longer lasting ... that might prove to be an indicator of potential
hostile action against either a neighboring nation or against his (Saddam's) own
people in the north or the south,'' he said.


Russian Flights ``Not A Good Idea''


``So far we have not seen an indication that is out of character of the sort
of activity that you would see this time of year in conjunction with their
normal training cycle, we'll continue to watch very carefully,'' he added.


Asked about Russian plans to start an air service to Baghdad, Albright said:
``We disagree with those who wish to fly into Iraq and I will make that clear
when I see (Russian Foreign Minister Igor) Ivanov in a little while and I don't
think it's a good idea.''


Commercial flights would erode the U.N. sanctions, which the United States
wants to maintain as long as Iraq does not let U.N. inspectors monitor its
weapons programs.


On military action, Quigley said: ``I think that we have a variety of means
at our disposal to take action, if we so choose to do so, against any aggressive
acts that Saddam would impose, either on a neighbor or on his people.


Iraq does not recognize the no-fly zones which were established by Western
nations after the 1991 Gulf War to protect a Kurdish enclave in the north and
Shi'ite Muslims in the south from potential attacks by Iraqi troops.


U.S. and British jets regularly patrol those areas from bases in Saudi
Arabia, Kuwait and Turkey.


Iraq has made more than 150 violations of the no-fly zones, mostly in the
south, since December 1998 when the United States and Britain bombed Iraq,
saying Saddam was obstructing the work of the U.N. weapons inspection agency

I guess Iraqi waterpumps will be bombed again with human guts flying all over the place (not excluding american). Saddam in a meanwhile will be drinking tea in his bunker, fuck chicks, and thinking whether to nuke yankee bastards or to let them get away with it again. It's going to be a very good punishment for this actions........

I really do feel sorry for the Iraqi people; they have not done anything to deserve this level of suffering.

They fought a war at the request of the Americans for 10years against Iran, only to find out that the US's number one ally, Israel, had been supplying weapons and intelligence to the otherside and that the US had done nothing about it...

...screwed again!

Z