[A-List] US imperialism: Iraq

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

US troop build-up faces delay
IAN BRUCE
The Herald, 24 October 2002

THE Pentagon has been forced to start rescheduling the build-up for an
invasion of Iraq because of the possibility that the UN will insist on the
return of inspectors to verify claims that Saddam Hussein still has chemical
and biological weapons.

UN interference could delay the start of a campaign until March or April
instead of the planned mid-January date for offensive operations when
seasonal temperatures in the region would still be low enough to allow
Allied soldiers to fight in garments designed to protect them from nerve gas
and germ warfare.

A senior US military source admitted yesterday that "some recalibration" was
going on, but insisted that the adjustments to the flow of hardware to the
Gulf would still leave all options open.

The US top brass is anxious to avoid a situation where tens of thousands of
troops are transported to the region and forced to wait in assembly areas
vulnerable to missile or lethal toxin.

On the other hand, Pentagon planners do not want to be caught on the hop if
UN inspections are blocked and the window for a swift attack to topple
Saddam presents itself.

Current UN thinking would give Saddam 30 days to declare his weapons
programmes, another 15 days for inspectors to arrive and set up headquarters
inside Iraq, and then 60 days for initial inspections to test Baghdad's
compliance.

Unless George W Bush, the US president, decides to ignore world opinion and
order a unilateral invasion, any change in a complex timetable would wreak
havoc with deployment schedules.

US and RAF jets meanwhile bombed two Iraqi air defence sites in the southern
"no fly" zone yesterday, the third raid in the area in a week.