|| -----Original Message-----
|| From: Max Sawicky
|| Sandbagging alert!! I for one recall all the awed descriptions
|| of the Iraqi military by the Pentagon, before they went in and
|| cleaned their clock.
||
|| I noticed a leak or announcement, I don't know which,
|| about a month ago to the effect that it would take six
|| months for the U.S. to restock its inventory of munitions,
|| including 'smart' bombs, to the point where it was equipped
|| to invade Iraq. That plus the following tells me there is a 20%
|| chance the U.S. invades tomorrow morning.
||
|| mbs
||
||
|| >
|| > If anybody still cares:
|| >
|| > http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=19032002-093807-8166r
|| > JERUSALEM, March 19 (UPI)
|| > (...)
|| > Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said that Cheney
|| "clearly that there
|| > will not be an operation against Iraq in the foreseeable future."
|| > (...)
|| >
So that's the data you're going on - your vague recollections of bits of anecdotal news? In 5 days, you're going to be a 100% wrong dilettante. I don't think you understood what the UPI report says: The VP of the US of A has told the Prime Minister of Turkey, his indispensable ally, that there will be no operation. This wasn't just idle chat between Pentagon flakes.
Meanwhile, the Talibs just attacked US & UK forces at Khost. Looks like they're preparing a pretty big spring offensive. The US military leadership may be mediocre but it's not totally blind. It has realized by now that the shit will hit the fan in Afghanistan and opening an Iraqi front is nuts. Forget the JDAM's, they need the Apaches. Those suckers spend most of their time in maintenance and consume parts like crazy, so the US has to cannibalize most its choppers to keep the ones in Afghanistan partially airborne.
As for Palestine, the bloodbath I predicted has of course materialised and Zinni's mission is dead in the water yet again. So the war will resume shortly worse than before until which time Israelis have had enough of the horror. Israeli media is already showing signs of mutiny against the censors. TV news has shown an IDF raid on Palestinian homes for the first time, with scenes of doors and walls being blasted, an unarmed civilian woman being killed in front of her family, an IDF recruit voicing his indignation at what he's being forced to do, etc. The Palestinians are used to living in hell and will never cave in. Sharon is going to go to his grave as a murderous, gambling fool.
If the US military shows its face in the ME in such a climate, US client states will be Islamic republics before you can say Osama.
Hakki