IRAQ: EGYPT WILL NOT LET US WARSHIPS PASS THROUGH SUEZ CANAL

Qatar News Agency | 8/19/02

[Hans]

They don't have the nerve.
This is to quiet down the screamers. Just listen to CNN, Peter Jennings or any American University professor and imagine what it's going to be like in the Islamic "Islam is love" world.

[archy]

Wasn't there something last week about the administration telling Egypt that we are not going to approve any additional aid to them because they're being uncooperative? Could this be their 'response'?

Unless, of course, we knew in advance this was coming [the NSA listening to phone conversations again?] and the aid cutoff was our advance reaction, as a warning....

Oh well. Arik Sharon nearly took Cairo last time, coming within 42 miles of Cairo during the 1973 war. I suppose those who forget history are doomed to have it repeated for them....

-archy-/-

[Catspaw]

We give Egypt $2 billion or thereabouts a year. I doubt if they're going to deny us access to the Suez Canal, especially when they fully realize the consequences of their action. The consequence is that the $2 billion a year would be modified to $0 a year.

Let's see who blinks first.

[mikhailovich]

Hmmmm. The US has sold arms to, and given cash to....let's see....Iran (axis of evil), Iraq (chemical weapons manufacturer), Egypt (refusing to allow US warships through the canal), and Saudi Arabia (refuses to grant US airspace). And there was another shady character trained and funded by the CIA.

All I can say is be careful who you sleep with. Its a damn shame when you have to come back and kill them.

[Spruce]

East Dakota?

[Credo]

You don't need no stinkin' Suez to get at Iraq from Turkey.

[stumpy]

In 1957 I travelled through the canal as a 10 year old boy on a freighter with my grandparents on a trip around the world. We had to travel in convoy, and missed our scheduled convoy.

One of the ships in our scheduled convoy struck a mine. I vividly remember seeing burned out tanks, and crashed fighters on both sides of the canal. We had to have a Russian pilot guide our ship through the canal, and when we got to port Said, the harbor was littered with sunken ships, only their cargo booms and stacks above water.

[OldFriend]

Egypt is posturing.....Mubarak is afraid for his life.

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

Sooner or later we are going to have an all out war with the Islamists in the Middle East. We might as well go ahead and do it while we have the upper hand.

[Bill Rice]

Wait a minute - I thought Israel captured the Suez Canal a long time ago!

Oh, that's right - the UN made them give it back to those peace loving muslims who lost it and then whined about it.

[all4one]

Your story gives me chills. You should feel very blessed that your and your grandparents missed your scheduled convoy. What a site to see as a 10 year old.

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

Tens of millions??? Try over TWO BILLION dollars a year. That could about cover a stealth bomber...

[jslade]

This is the BIG STICK. The Roosevelt!

[ivoteright]

HA! I teach geography in a public school (NO, NOT AN NEA MEMBER). I wonder what the powers that be would say if I hung your Sea of Suez map on the wall.

[Prodigal Son]

Great One! That's a keeper! Is is available in hi res?

[SamAdams76]

"But we're not going through the canal to attack Iraq, we're just going through to do some sightseeing!"

[Frank_Discussion]

Dang! I can't see it.

[ArrogantBustard]

Nice picture. President TR's original "Big Stick" was a fleet of big-gun battleships, accompanied by cruisers. USS TR and her sisters and escorts are certainly worthy successors. And if the USN didn't nickname USS TR "the Big Stick" there'd be something seriously mentally wrong, somewhere.

[Texbob]

Ha Ha Ha! Egypt could not stop anyone or anything from using the canal. They got big mouths and no guts to fight.