[A-List] US imperialism: Iraq

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

Kuwait seals zone for Iraq mission
Border closed to let preparations for invasion go undetected

IAN BRUCE
The Herald, 28 October 2002

KUWAIT has declared a large area of its northern border with Iraq a closed
military zone to allow preparations for an invasion to topple Saddam Hussein
to be carried out in secret.

The official explanation for the exclusion zone, and the forced deportation
of hundreds of farmers and Bedouin tribesmen, is fears for the safety of
British and American service personnel after attacks on US Marines earlier
this month.

One marine was killed and another wounded by two suspected al Qaeda gunmen
during an exercise on Failaka island off the Kuwaiti coast. Two further
shooting incidents occurred without casualties.

Suicide bombing threats have been made against Camp Doha, the desert
installation which is home to 10,000 US troops and a stockpile of tanks,
self-propelled artillery, and armoured personnel carriers.

Military sources say the real explanation is to allow a build-up of armoured
forces and supplies to sustain a campaign against Iraq while preventing
Baghdad from pinpointing their positions and perhaps subjecting them to
chemical or biological attack.

The Ministry of Defence is fitting 238 of the UK's 326 Challenger 2 main
battle tanks with special filters and other protective equipment to enable
them to fight in the desert.

More than half of the Challengers deployed to an exercise in Oman last year
broke down when their engines became clogged with sand. Damage was estimated
at £3.5m.

At least three armoured regiments, each equipped with 57 tanks, are expected
to be deployed to Kuwait in the next few months for "exercises".

The tank units will form the backbone of a 20,000-strong British armoured
division if the US orders an invasion of Iraq. The "desertised" Challengers
will be used to replace vehicles knocked out in battle.

The civilian-free sector will allow crews to train and become acclimatised
before being committed to action.

As the Gulf emirate acted, George W Bush, the US president, repeated that
the US would lead a coalition against Iraq if the United Nations failed to
act to ensure Saddam did not possess chemical, biological or nuclear
weapons.

"If the UN won't act, if Saddam Hussein won't disarm, we will lead a
coalition to disarm him," Bush said at a summit of Pacific Rim leaders in
Mexico.

Colin Powell, his secretary of state, said key decisions had to be made and
that he expected a resolution to be finalised within days. "We can't
continue to have a debate that never ends," he said.

The US and Britain have for six weeks been pressing the security council to
back a resolution intended to force Iraq to give up weapons of mass
destruction or face dire consequences.

However, France and Russia have resisted, floating rival draft resolutions.
All five permanent members, Britain, China, France, Russia and the United
States, have a veto.

Baghdad kept up its war of rhetoric with Washington, accusing it yesterday
of trying to intimidate the UN security council into adopting a new draft
resolution that could pave the way for military action.

"The evil American administration is practising clear terrorism inside and
outside the security council in order to pass a new draft resolution," said
al-Thawra, the newspaper of President Saddam Hussein's ruling Baath Party.

"Each paragraph of the new draft represents a core of tension and an excuse
for launching aggression."

As the war of words continued, thousands of people across Europe and the US
took to the streets at the weekend to oppose a war on Iraq.

"This is going to be an ugly, unnecessary fight. Most of the world is saying
'no' to it," Jesse Jackson, the civil rights leader, told a crowd in
Washington at the Vietnam veterans' memorial.

Organisers said 150,000 people took part in the anti-war protest in the US
capital, but witnesses put the number at fewer than 50,000.

Another 40,000 marched in San Francisco, with thousands more demonstrating
in Amsterdam, Berlin and other European cities. Up to 3000 people marched
yesterday in an anti-war demonstration in Madrid.

In the UK, the Oxford Research Group warned that a war on Iraq would
heighten the risk of further terrorist attacks by al Qaeda in a destablised
region, and that it could involve at least 10,000 casualties in a
conventional war alone.