Bookmark www.milnet.com     Contact milnet@milnet.com

_____________________________________________________________________________________
 

"Iraq and U.N. say talks went well" reports the major news media on March 7th.  And in the next paragraph, " but there was no indication Baghdad would allow U.N. weapons inspectors back in the country."  So what went well.  Well lunch was good...
 

For Iraq:  Weeks not Months

For weeks now,  major media outlets have continued to deny and obsfucate the impending war with Iraq.  Fox News, however, on Sunday, March 24, 2002 featured an interview where the host asked a former Marine officer, "Do you think that this now means special forces are on the ground in Iraq", and the officer replied, "possibly or they are in the middle of their planning phases just prior to going in.".  "When do we go in?" askes the concerned female reporter. "I'd say its in a few weeks, not longer than a month", replies the erstwhile retired officer.  Is is it a play put on for Saddam or are we really getting close to "going in".

The other media outlets across the nation, including AP and the major broadcast networks, have simply ignored the story.

Vice President Cheney, on NBC's Meet The Press, said after returning from a Middle East tour presumably to assess support for U.S. led attacks on Iraq, said he got some mixed signals but no real opposition to the U.S. resolving the Iraqi problem.  Looking at MSNBC and NBC's web sites, not a word about that, but they did jump all over Israeli-Palestinian news story where Cheney said he wasn't going to meet with Arafat.  Did NBC or MSNBC note Cheney's words about Iraq.  Not a peep.  Try searching online on their sites.  It's as if Cheney hadn't said a word about his trip.  That seems odd, huh?

So, if you follow the major media line of thinking, it is far more important for the American people to focus on Cheney's delay in meeting with Arafat than the U.S. going to war in Iraq.  Granted the situation in Israel is grave. But to ignore the last month of increasing saber rattle?

And while, presumably, the U.S. now may be planning to "head on in" to Iraq with some special forces types to pave the way for an attack, Iraq suddenly offers to allow a probe team to explore the loss of an American pilot during the Gulf War.  And Cheney's reply, "he's just trying to change the subject."  What subject?  Why the refusal of Iraq to let in inspectors.  The talks that "went well" were actually, as expected, a big failure and Iraq has given up its last chance to delay U.S. response to continued NBC weapons program buildup.  And again thanks to our plucky female reporter on Fox for pointing that one out too.  (2:30 EST on Fox).

War is coming to Iraq and MILNET agrees --  measure it in weeks not months.  Of course, if a month passes we'll all be a little chagrined, but all the signs are there.

Are the major media outlets lo-balling the story cuz they don't want to warn the Iraqis?  Oh yeah.  Like CNN is going to hold off on a story like that.  But wait.  The extreme pro-Arab CNN reports on their web page:

"(CNN) -- Arab leaders are not unalterably opposed to U.S. military action against Iraq and share American concerns about Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, Vice President Dick Cheney said Sunday.  Cheny...downplayed suggestions that he encountered strong resistance to any military action against Iraq." ¹

History Does Repeat Itself

“I would want to see a situation where we are able to resolve our differences diplomatically and that Iraq comes  into compliance,” Secretary General Kofi Annan said about the U.N. meeting back on March 7.   If you go back to the days before the Gulf war, you'll remember very similar language coming out of the U.N.  It is a familar sound.  It is the sound of yet another U.N. failure to use diplomacy.  It's hard to blame the U.N. and poor peace loving Kofi, after all they are dealing with a country and regime that really doesn't give a damn about protecting its people from war.  And of course Suddam replaced a big chunk of his military leaders -- the firing squads have been busy of late.  Saddam knows how to keep a coup from happening -- a little blood letting now and then keeps the troops aware of who is in control.

So here we are two weeks later and Cheney's visit to the Middle East, while seemingly not all that exciting, may be the harbinger of the truth to come -- The Arab nations really don't care if we clobber the hell out of Saddam.  In fact, it might be a good thing for them.  And of course, the hidden agenda here is that the Arab nations can all hue and cry about American and British aggression (MILNET can't imagine the Brits won't help out, even if only a lilttle).  Anyone familiar with the Arab private and public postures will recognize the Cairo Two Step.  Deja Vu in the new millenium.  Who'd a thunk?

In any case, MILNET believes the stage is set.  And since we've been proclaiming Iraq as the next target for many months now, it's hard not  to say "We told you so" in big headlines.  Again of course, we could be real early. In fact we really hope Saddam is stupid enough to ignore the signs and walks around outdoors   Maybe he'll go for a stroll with his sons, dad and sons together make such nice examples of human kindness.

¹  CNN online at http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/central/03/24/cheney.iraq/index.html  reporting on NBC's Meet the Press interview with Vice President Dick Cheney.
 

© Copyright, 2002, Michael Crawford, MILNET

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
 

distributed worldwide by AFI Research afi@supanet.com