Count Down to War

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Well, the inspectors have reported, they want more time but both Jack Straw and 'an unnamed state department source' say Saddam has had his last chance. How long have we got?

― Ed (dali), Monday, 27 January 2003 17:48 (twenty-three years ago)

i supose youve got a lot of time if youre not in military, i dont think the same could be said about the Irakis

― Chupa-Cabras (vicc13), Monday, 27 January 2003 18:25 (twenty-three years ago)

How long have we got until what? American attacks? Iraqi retaliation? Terrorist attacks resulting from the war? American Nuclear Victory? America finally leaving a hastily rebuilt Iraq and leaving the puppet government to fend for itself?

Or, alternately:

How long have we got until what? The first volley fired in a noble campaign? American "Civilian-Safe" Victory? The imposition of noble Democratic ideals on a formerly oppressed country?

Or maybe: How long have we got until CNN shows Peter Arnette? ;-)

― Aaron Grossman (aajjgg), Monday, 27 January 2003 18:28 (twenty-three years ago)

At least 3 weeks, according to some news report this morning, as that's how long it takes to get all the military hardware over to the area.

― jel -- (jel), Monday, 27 January 2003 18:30 (twenty-three years ago)

(that is until a war starts, but I'm an optimist and am not 100% convinced that there will be one)

― jel -- (jel), Monday, 27 January 2003 18:31 (twenty-three years ago)

only 3 weeks? that is not enough time for everyone in the US who disagrees with war to expatriate! Can anyone provide a list of countries that provide political asylum ;-)

― Aaron Grossman (aajjgg), Monday, 27 January 2003 18:40 (twenty-three years ago)

I wouldn't come here. Tony Blair wants to abrogate the European convention on human rights to allow the UK to deport asylum seekers to dangerous regimes.

― Ed (dali), Monday, 27 January 2003 18:44 (twenty-three years ago)

darn... England was really my first choice!

― Aaron Grossman (aajjgg), Monday, 27 January 2003 18:53 (twenty-three years ago)

Blix says Iraq won't disarm. And we're starting to hear the ties to Osama again. I think it'll happen soon and be done quite quickly.

― bnw (bnw), Monday, 27 January 2003 20:30 (twenty-three years ago)

It starts tomorrow night during Dubya's State of the Union propagha...er, speech.

An unnamed Department of Defense official says "We's gonna blow 'em ups real good!"

Then they'll wave their arms and say "collateral damage" 3 times, and all the dead civilians will turn to Nestle bars with which to feed the Irackee childrens.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Monday, 27 January 2003 20:37 (twenty-three years ago)

All we can hope for now is that Iraqis are given control over their own destinies and quickly. If USUK set up a puppet, client or militray governor, thousands of Iraqis will be driven into the hands of the fundamentalists.

My pie in the sky hope is that on the way home the armada will stop off at Israel and enforce all of the applicable security council resolutions (I think they start about resolution 2, the last iraq one was 1441 but unfortunately the UN don't operate a strict queuing system.

― Ed (dali), Monday, 27 January 2003 20:37 (twenty-three years ago)

yum! nestle bars!

― g (graysonlane), Monday, 27 January 2003 21:04 (twenty-three years ago)

four-six weeks minimum: US troops not yet actually ready to go to war

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 27 January 2003 22:48 (twenty-three years ago)

do you reckon they'll blow up the Iraqi water treatment plants again this time? as you know, water is an important weapon of mass destruction.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Monday, 27 January 2003 23:40 (twenty-three years ago)

With that water the could flood Nebraska.

― Ed (dali), Monday, 27 January 2003 23:45 (twenty-three years ago)

heavy water = you can build an atom bomb

it is heavy = it is sneakily hid underneath the ordinary water

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 27 January 2003 23:58 (twenty-three years ago)

w/ airfields in Turkey and Saudi big enough to land a C5 and/or a C17 we could put at least one regimental task force on the ground in 72 hours, plus what we already have there. While we don't have the ground troops in place yet we have enough naval and air power to start flattening telecommunications facilities, antiaircraft/armor/artillery postions, ammo dumps, et al by tonight if we felt like it

Please note that the USS Comfort, the naval hospital ship we sent out some weeks ago, is specifically equipped to deal with WMD casualties

Sleep tight

― Millar (Millar), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 00:07 (twenty-three years ago)

Joy.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 00:08 (twenty-three years ago)

you may be right tmillar: that wz just what the channel 4 reporter reported, that us military back-channels were saying "um hang on boss, we'd prefer another six weeks if poss"

― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 00:13 (twenty-three years ago)

At the risk of sounding paternalistic, is Iraq really ready for democracy? I mean isn't there some bare minimum of pre-existing democratic institutions and culture, not to mention a sizeable middle class that are required to get a real democracy off the ground?

The US would need to undertake some kind of long-term Marshall Plan style rebuild of the country for it to have a chance of getting on its feet. Sadly I predict we'll lose interest far to soon.

So I'm against going in, for this reason among many others.

― Dave Beckhouse (Dave Beckhouse), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 00:17 (twenty-three years ago)

If half of the world's Iraqi emigrants moved back home, as many Afghans have, they could grow a middle class pretty quickly, I think. The trick is keeping the different clans (much less Shiite and Sunni sects) from getting nasty with one another.

― Millar (Millar), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 00:20 (twenty-three years ago)

If the oil money got to the people in Iraq then maybe.

Powell was on TV the other day talking about holding the oil money "in trust" for the Iraqi people. Ask the Tribes in the US how well that's been working out for them.

― Dave Beckhouse (Dave Beckhouse), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 00:33 (twenty-three years ago)

trust seems like such a hilarious word in this context!

― Aaron Grossman (aajjgg), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 01:15 (twenty-three years ago)

10.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 01:19 (twenty-three years ago)

kyuu

― Millar (Millar), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 01:26 (twenty-three years ago)

(I can't believe it took me this long to figure out!)

― Aaron Grossman (aajjgg), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 04:37 (twenty-three years ago)

Does everyone really think it'll happen? It all seems like grandstanding and arm waving to me. It's like every time someone says something naughty about the administration, they yell, "Yeah, well, Saddam!" and then sit back and wait til the next time someone points out that the administration are morons, and do it again.

It reminds me of this Onion thing, those people on the street? The question was "What do you think of the mid-east crisis?" and one of them said "After a couple thousand years, maybe we should start thinking of it as a culture." That's so nasty but it's not like Americans going in and meddling has done anything remotely positive, so why keep doing it?

If we'd just come up with feasible ways to use alternative energy, would they even care? I mean, Bush would cos he's all like avenging his father for some ridiculous we-live-in-the-middle-ages reason, but anyone else in power?

― Ally (mlescaut), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 04:47 (twenty-three years ago)

Does everyone really think it'll happen? It all seems like grandstanding and arm waving to me.

I've been suspecting that's been the plot of this whole exercise all along, on both sides. We'll see, though.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 05:20 (twenty-three years ago)

a general point: most people on ILX seem very detached from the war and stuff. Are you happy living in your bubble of idle chit-chat and ironic discourse while Bushi and Blair get ready to kill a few hundred thousand people in your name?

― DV (dirtyvicar), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 13:19 (twenty-three years ago)

There are 3 or 4 new war threads started every week, DV.

― Tom (Groke), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 13:21 (twenty-three years ago)

FAProtest. Feb 15th.

― Ed (dali), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 13:24 (twenty-three years ago)

There are 3 or 4 new war threads started every week, DV.

yeah, but hardly anyone posts to them (er, I may be wrong about this). and most of the posters are the same few people.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 15:01 (twenty-three years ago)

not everyone who goes on a march is also a designated speaker, DV

― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 15:05 (twenty-three years ago)

http://www.demon.co.uk/momus/medicaid.jpeg

― Momus (Momus), Tuesday, 28 January 2003 15:24 (twenty-three years ago)

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