U.S. ready to attack Iraq: general

CNN ASIA ^ | 9.21.02

[Enemy Of The State]

KUWAIT CITY, Kuwait (CNN) -- The commander of U.S. forces based in the Gulf has said he is prepared for an attack on Iraq.

General Tommy Franks, the commander of the U.S. Central Command, said Saturday: "We are prepared to undertake whatever activities and whatever actions we may be directed to take by our nation.

[What Is Ain't]

No doubt this news will cause a lot of pants-wetting among our European friends.

[polemikos]

"...the only course of action that is not available to us is
... [what] we've seen over the past 11 years."

Needs "sound-bite" work, but the general idea is right ;-)

[LS]

I, for one, think the actual deposing of Saddam will take less than 48 hours. What is needed after that, the so-called "peacekeeping" and mopup, is anyone's guess, and it wouldn't surprise me to see that last for many years.

[CROSSHIGHWAYMAN]

I, for one, think the actual deposing of Saddam will take less than 48 hours. What is needed after that, the so-called "peacekeeping" and mopup, is anyone's guess, and it wouldn't surprise me to see that last for many years.

Saddam and his "minnie me" have an escape pod ready to go!

Watch for things to heat up when the daytime temps in Qatar drop to the 80s and 90s.

[jwfiv]

I agree, Saddam will be defanged and dethroned in 48 hours or less...and I'd bet heavily on 'less'. Our intention will be to hit hard, with prejudice.

If it takes years to stabilize the the re-born nation of Iraq, that's cool, we're willing...on the whole, I'd rather be in Philadelphia, but if temporary bivouac in Iraq is what it takes to keep the City of Brotherly Love from becoming an irradiated blast zone, well...ok...we should make that choice, while we still can.

[Parley Baer]

LETS ROLL!!!

[LS]

Right, and on policing Iraq, well, despite the bombs and so forth, Afghanistan has not been much worse than Bosnia---very few American "peacekeeper" casualties and (to my knowledge) no deaths. So Iraq likely wouldn't be much different.

[TLBSHOW]

notice the date folks

we have been ready since september

[dirtboy]

Note the number of troops in Kuwait in September - 10,000. Pop quiz - how many troops would you rather have assembled for an invasion force - 10,000? Or 300,000? This is a toughie, take all the time you need.

[justshe]

Don't you hate it when you have to keep repeating yourself?

[TLBSHOW]

http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101030317/nmilitaryA.html
March 9, 2002

"Our troops in the field are trained; they're ready; they are capable," Army General Tommy Franks said last week after briefing President Bush on the war plan. Pentagon planners suggest that more targets in Baghdad would be hit in the first 24 hours of Gulf War II than were hit in all 43 days of the first war. The U.S. military's goal would be to deliver "such a shock on the system that the Iraqi regime would have to assume early on that the end is inevitable," Air Force General Richard Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told TIME last week.

[dirtboy]

Don't you hate it when you have to keep repeating yourself?

I've gotten used to it. But I must say, negating the naysaying nutbars just ain't as much fun as it used to be. I expect this kind of idiocy from Democrats, but I don't expect it from freepers.

[TomB]

The number of U.S. troops currently training in Kuwait has grown to nearly 10,000. More than double the number that have taken part in past exercises.

[justshe]

It has been suggested by more than a few, that disruptive moles come in all colors and stripes. Can't say I disagree.

[TLBSHOW]

The problem is the UN is not who we should be seeking anything from in the first place and we should of dumped the UN months ago if not years ago!

Fact is America wants the UN gone and Rush spent most of the show today slamming the UN and the fact we are waiting and waiting and trying to get the UN on board! When The President said weeks not months back in (September 13, 2002 )


UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- President Bush called on the United Nations Thursday to move quickly -- within a matter of weeks, according to his advisers -- to enforce its resolutions demanding Iraq's disarmament.

(U.N. resolutions on Iraq)

Bush told the U.N. General Assembly his administration will work with the U.N. Security Council, but made clear the United States would move against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on its own if the council fails to act.

"The purposes of the United States should not be doubted. The Security Council resolutions will be enforced. The just demands of peace and security will be met -- or action will be unavoidable, and a regime that has lost its legitimacy will also lose its power," he said.

Bush aides say they would like to see the issue play out in a six- to eight-week period: First, a new U.N. resolution, followed by the return of weapons inspectors to Iraq -- with the clear understanding that any interference would justify military action.

"We cannot wait months for him to comply," a senior administration official said. http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/09/12/bush.speech.un/

[TomB]

I don't know what that post was supposed to mean but earlier you said:

we have been ready since september

The EXACT SAME article says that we had only 10,000 troops in Kuwait at the time. How could we have been ready with only a tiny number of troops?

[TLBSHOW]

You think we need 250,000 troops to take Iraq? Now if we are going to take Iran too then I would agree.

[justshe]

Reality seldom penetrates the thick fog of the deluded.

[TomB]

If that is the number that they are bringing over, then yes, that is what we need.

You've been quoting Franks all afternoon, but now you tell me he doesn't know what he's doing.