Kissinger has spoken. This should shut Brent Scowcroft up. It has also helped to lay the intellectual framework for the postwar world.
His explanation of the Peace of Westphalia was instructive.
Be Seeing You,
Chris
Posted on 08/11/2002 9:24:03 AM PDT by Dog Gone
" ... planning should be based on the visible availability of an overwhelming force capable of dealing with all contingencies, and not on the expectation of a quick Iraqi collapse ... "
Was supposed to be the challenge to the United Nations.
He doesn't elaborate, but it seems as if he's suggesting that a "nuclear club," comprised of responsible nuclear countries, act in concert to deal with future threats. Sort of a Nuclear Nato, I guess.
Kissinger has spoken. This should shut Brent Scowcroft up. It has also helped to lay the intellectual framework for the postwar world.
His explanation of the Peace of Westphalia was instructive.
Be Seeing You,
Chris
What does "radical pressures authored by Baghdad" mean?
As far as I can tell, no country in the Middle East other than Israel actually fears Iraq. Iran fought Iraq to a draw back in the '80s, when Iraq was supported by the Reagan administration. Kuwait is now well protected by US and UK forces. Saudi Arabia has sufficient air power to demolish any Iraqi attack. Syria has had friendly relations with Iraq, a similar Baathist tradition, and roughly equivalent military power. Turkey has greater military power. Jordan, like Kuwait is still functionally a UK/US protectorate.
They can't be terribly pleased that Saddam is building nukes, as well as chemical and bio weapons. His wanton destruction of the Kuwaiti oilfields upon withdrawing from Kuwait demonstrate a willingness to destroy for destruction's sake.
Saddam's weapons may be meant only for Israel, but nobody can be sure that some won't find its way into the radical terrorist organizations. In reality, there is nothing good that come out of Iraq's efforts to perfect weapons of mass destruction, even for Saudi Arabia.
The only reason we have a presence in the Middle East is because of Iraq. We weren't there to any extent before the Gulf War. Containment, as a strategy, has been successful in terms of protecting the region from Saddam so far, but it has been a total failure in terms of preventing the creation of WMD.
Why does Saddam want them so badly if he doesn't intend on using them for leverage, at a minimum, and to destroy entire populations, at worst?
Do you disagree with what he wrote here, or did you skip reading it because you don't like him?
Certainly could happen, but that assumes the hardline Islamists don't take control before or during the Iraq regime change.
A genuine, functioning democracy in the Gulf is a threat to all autocratic rulers there. The Saudi Royal family is hanging on by a thread as it is, with both radical Islamists (like bin Laden) threatening it from one side, and those who chafe under the strict religious rule from the other.
Sorry Henry, but "to the victor go the spoils".
:=|
Overwhelming force is meaningless in this context, when all Saddam has to do is send a single e-mail to bring about the death of millions of Americans and the total economic loss of cities like NYC and Washington, DC, just as he promised us in the wake of his strike against the WTC:
THIS IS NEXTThe problem will not be solved by brute force. Anybody who thinks otherwise probably also still thinks we let Saddam off the hook in 1991 because we didn't have a UN mandate, or because we didn't want to offend our Arab buddies. (Think again!) Anyway, George Bush has a different plan. Wait and see.
WE HAVE THIS ANTHRAX
YOU CAN NOT STOP US
ARE YOU AFRAID?
But, if you are correct, that fact will come out, probably just before we move militarily. I'm still holding out hope for a US-sponsored coup that would avoid the campaign and the fairly high chance of WMD being deployed by Saddam.
The fact of the matter is that Saddam doesn't have the slightest reason to refrain from using everything in his arsenal this time. With the US already on record as seeking his removal as the goal, the best he could hope for is a prison cell with Manuel Noriega. More likely his future would look like Mussolini's, hanging upside down from a gas station sign. No reason for him to hold back.
The oil field concessions in Saudi Arabia date from meetings between FDR and Ibn Saud during WW II. We overthrew Mossadegh in Iran and installed the Shah. There was heavy influence over Iran until the Revolution. Turkey has been part of NATO since it was formed and had a large US presence.
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