POLL: The repercussions of a US attack on Iraq

[wild]

EU tells America to toe the UN line


'Slippage' in US plans as Solana spells out Europe's misgivings

Ian Black in Athens and Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Saturday January 11, 2003
The Guardian

Transatlantic differences over Iraq threatened to set back America's timeline for an invasion yesterday when the European Union warned the US that there could be no war against Saddam Hussein without clear proof that he holds banned weapons.
Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy chief, issued a blunt reminder to Washington that only the UN security council could determine whether military action was justified.

European governments and public opinion believe overwhelmingly at this stage that it is not justified, because the work of weapons inspectors has been inconclusive.
...

"Without proof, it would be very difficult to start a war," Mr Solana told the French daily Le Monde. "The legitimacy of such a war will be determined by the security council. The UN arms inspectors derive their legitimacy from the council... so if there is not any information deemed sufficient by the security council... I would find it very difficult to act."

full article at http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,872775,00.html




Allies Slow U.S. War Plans

British and French Urge Time for Inspectors; Turkey Delays on Troops

By Michael Dobbs
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, January 11, 2003; Page A01

Over the past week, key U.S. allies have sent an unambiguous message to the Bush administration to give United Nations weapons inspectors in Iraq time to complete their work, even if it means delaying the onset of hostilities.
...

"The odds have gone down for war," said a well-placed U.S. official. "We don't have a good war plan; the inspectors have unprecedented access to Iraq; we have just started giving them intelligence; we have to give them more time to see how this works. There is no reason to stop the process until it can't proceed any further."
...

On the diplomatic front, some of the strongest words of caution have come from Britain, which until now has played the role of Washington's staunchest ally in the gathering showdown with Baghdad. British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is coming under increasing pressure from his own Labor Party to distance himself from Bush, told the British cabinet on Thursday that the weapons inspectors should be given "time and space" to finish their work.

Blair said that the Jan. 27 date for Blix's report to the Security Council was "an important staging post," but "shouldn't be regarded in any sense as a deadline," according to British officials.

full article at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40551-2003Jan10.html



Opposition to War Growing in France


By Keith B. Richburg
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, January 11, 2003; Page A15


PARIS, Jan. 10 -- As President Jacques Chirac attempts to prepare the French public for possible war with Iraq, opinion polls show strong opposition to a conflict and growing disquiet among members of Chirac's political grouping in parliament.
...

A poll Thursday by the Ipsos organization for the newspaper Le Figaro found 77 percent of those interviewed opposed to military intervention against Iraq. The poll found that anti-war sentiment largely spanned the political spectrum, from people on the far left, who are most opposed, to people on the far right.

full article at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40561-2003Jan10.html

regards

wild

 

[hapaboy]

Hey Wild, still waiting for your reply....Having a problem finding some link to cut and paste?

Also, I've been reading on other threads that you're in fact a German citizen.

Is this true?

Danke schoen.

 

[wild]

Iraq

A "strictly confidential" UN document, written to assist with UN contingency planning in the event of war with Iraq, predicts high civilian injuries, an extension of the existing nutritional crisis, and "the outbreak of diseases in epidemic if not pandemic proportions." The existence of the draft document, entitled "Likely Humanitarian Scenarios" and dated 10th December 2002, was first reported in the Times (London) on 23rd December 2002, but this is the first time it has been made publicly accessible. It is available at

http://www.casi.org.uk/info/undocs/war021210.pdf.

The document focuses on the likely humanitarian consequences of a range of anticipated military scenarios. It estimates that:

"as many as 500,000 people could require treatment to a greater or lesser degree as a result of direct or indirect injuries", based upon World Health Organisation estimates of 100,000 direct and 400,000 indirect casualties [para 23]. It indicates existing shortages of some medical items, "rendering the existing stocks inadequate" for war-increased demand [para 22], and exacerbated by the "likely absence of a functioning primary health care system in a post-conflict situation" [para 24].

damage to the electricity network will reduce "water and sanitation as well as health [sectors]" [para 5]. In the short term "39% of the population will need to be provided with potable water" [para 28]. The high number of indirect casualties may be because "the outbreak of diseases in epidemic if not pandemic proportions is very likely" [para 25].

"It is estimated that the nutritional status of some 3.03m people countrywide will be dire and that they will require therapeutic feeding [according to UNICEF estimates]. This consists of 2.03m severely and moderately malnourished children under 5 and one million pregnant women" [para 27]

"It is estimated that there will eventually be some 900,000 Iraqi refugees requiring assistance, of which 100,000 will be in need of immediate assistance, [according to UNHCR]" [para 35]. An estimated 2 million people will require some assistance with shelter [para 33]. For 130,000 existing refugees in Iraq "it is probable that UNHCR will initially be unable to provide the support required" [para 36]

The document also rejects comparisons with humanitarian outcomes of both the 2001 Afghanistan and 1991 Gulf conflicts, since the existing sanctions-induced humanitarian situation in Iraq has produced a population in which 16 million (60%) "have no other means with which to provide for other essential requirements" other than monthly government food rations [para 2,4,11]

more at http://www.cam.ac.uk/societies/casi/pr/pr030107undoc.html


regards

wild

...

hapaboy,

anything wrong with me being a German citizen ?

Also, I've been reading on other threads that you're in fact an American citizen.

Is this true?

Danke schoen

 

[hapaboy]

Quote from wild:

[Bhapaboy,

anything wrong with me being a German citizen ?

Also, I've been reading on other threads that you're in fact an American citizen.

Is this true?

Danke schoen [/B]

Mein Gott, no wonder you've been ducking me! I can tolerate and even enjoy criticisms in this matter from fellow Americans, but I shall waste no further time nor energy reading long-winded media pastings from someone across the Atlantic who wasn't even attacked!

I guess you're still worked up over the ass-kicking you were dealt in two world wars. Must be rough knowing if not for us you'd have goosestepped all over the world and taken all the OIL you love to scream about. Heh-heh, you've got some nerve.

It is with greatest pleasure that I put you on Ignore.

p.s. After all the name's you've called my president, here's one for your chancellor: SCHMUCK.

 

[wild]

well, well, well ... a few "fellow Americans" for simple minds:

Military Intelligence "cleansed" the files of Nazi references. By 1955, more than 760 German scientists had been granted citizenship in the U.S. and given prominent positions in the American scientific community. Many had been longtime members of the Nazi party and the Gestapo, had conducted experiments on humans at concentration camps, had used slave labor, and had comitted other war crimes.

A good example of how their dossiers were changed is the case of Wernher von Braun. A September 18, 1947, report on the German rocket scientist stated, "Subject is regarded as a potential security threat by the Military Governor." The following February, a new security evaluation of Von Braun said, "No derogatory information is available on the subject...It is the opinion of the Military Governor that he may not constitute a security threat to the United States."

From 1937 to 1945, von Braun was the technical director of the Peenemunde rocket research center, where the V-2 rocket --which devasted England--was developed. As noted previously, his dossier was rewritten so he didn't appear to have been an enthusiastic Nazi.

Von Braun worked on guided missles for the U.S. Army and was later director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. He became a celebrity in the 1950s and early 1960s, as one of Walt Disney's experts on the "World of Tomorrow." In 1970, he became NASA's associate administrator.

ARTHUR RUDOLPH;
During the war, Rudolph was operations director of the Mittelwerk factory at the Dora-Nordhausen concentration camps, where 20,000 workers died from beatings, hangings, and starvation. Rudolph had been a member of the Nazi party since 1931; a 1945 military file on him said simply: "100% Nazi, dangerous type, security threat..!! Suggest internment."

But the JIOA's final dossier on him said there was "nothing in his records indicating that he was a war criminal or and ardent Nazi or otherwise objectionable." Rudolph became a US citizen and later designed the Saturn 5 rocket used in the Apollo moon landings.

KURT BLOME;
A high-ranking Nazi scientist, Blome told U.S. military interrogators in 1945 that he had been ordered 1943 to experiment with plague vaccines on concentration camp prisoners. He was tried at Nuremberg in 1947 on charges of practicing euthanasia (extermination of sick prisoners), and conducting experiments on humans. Although acquitted, his earlier admissions were well known, and it was generally accepted that he had indeed participated in the gruesome experiments.

Two months after his Nuremberg acquittal, Blome was interviewed at Camp David, Maryland, about biological warfare. In 1951, he was hired by the U.S. Army Chemical Corps to work on chemical warfare. His file neglected to mention Nuremberg.


MAJOR GENERAL WALTER SCHREIBER;
According to Linda Hunt's article, the US military tribunal at Nuremberg heard evidence that "Schreiber had assigned doctors to experiment on concentration camp prisoners and had made funds available for such experimentation." The assistant prosecutor said the evidence would have convicted Schreiber if the Soviets, who held him from 1945 to 1948, had made him available for trial.

Again, Schreiber's Paperclip file made no mention of this evidence; the project found work for him at the Air Force School of Medicine at Randolph Field in Texas. When columnist Drew Pearson publicized the Nuremberg evidence in 1952, the negative publicity led the JIOA, says Hunt, to arrange "a visa and a job for Schreiber in Argentina, where his daughter was living." On May 22, 1952, he was flown to Buenos Aires.

and so on ...


"Must be rough knowing if not for us you'd have goosestepped all over the world and taken all the OIL you love to scream about."

looks like it´s America´s turn this time to goosestep all over the world and take all the OIL i love to scream about ...

God bless America and all my American friends and allies ... good to know which and whose "values" German soldiers are asked/expected to defend/protect and die for in Iraq.

regards

wild

 

[fairplay]

Excuse me! There are at least two inconsistencies in your contribution:
1) Because of the "ass-kicking" which "you" dealt to wild (was he already born then?) India and many other nations gained independence. In many countries in Asia Germans are considered heroes!
1) The word "schmuck" to the best of my knbowledge is German and means jewel: not bad for Herr Schroeder

 

[fairplay]

Quote from fairplay:
Hey hapaboy

Excuse me! There are at least two inconsistencies in your contribution:

1) Because of the "ass-kicking" which "you" dealt to wild (was he already born then?) India and many other nations gained independence. In many countries in Asia Germans are considered heroes!
1) The word "schmuck" to the best of my knowledge is German and means jewel: not bad for Herr Schroeder

so: leave the guy alone, even if you don't like Germans:

 

[wild]

Quote from fairplay:
Hey hapaboy

Excuse me! There are at least two inconsistencies in your contribution:

1) Because of the "ass-kicking" which "you" dealt to wild (was he already born then?) India and many other nations gained independence. In many countries in Asia Germans are considered heroes!
1) The word "schmuck" to the best of my knowledge is German and means jewel: not bad for Herr Schroeder


fairplay,

thanks a lot for your kind support ...

it was certainly not me on my own who "liberated" India, Pakistan, Singapore, Birmah, the Middle East, Egypt and the rest of the British Empire from the colonial yoke. Imperial Japan and - most importantly - the USA played a larger part in bringing it to a grinding halt ... not the least with their generous "lend-lease act", which left the UK flat broke and unable to maintain an empire after the end of WW II.

as history shows, no overextended empire has survided very long so far ... which will probably also apply to the American empire in the making.

hope you´re well and safe in independent Singapore ...

regards

wild

 

[Kicking]

Wild,
what's the lend-lease act?

 

[max401]

Quote from daniel_m:



get up with the times maxi! everyone knows 9/11 was a CIA engineered plot to enable access to afghan territory for the purpose of getting that pipeline built!

Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. Too bad we blew the chance to take all the Kuwaiti oil. Damn bunglers; very busy worrying about the Kurds, I suppose.