BY MAURICE WILLIAMS
Washington is plowing full steam ahead toward launching a military assault against Iraq, on a scale similar to its 1991 onslaught against that Arab country. "It's not days and it's not months, so that leaves weeks" before an assault, U.S. secretary of state Madeleine Albright said in Jerusalem February 1.

The U.S. rulers have made clear they are prepared to go to war with only the backing of London if need be. "While we always prefer to [act] multilaterally .. we are prepared to go unilaterally," Albright said during her February tour of Europe and the Middle East in which she pressed for support, or at least acquiescence, for the U.S. war moves.

Russian president Boris Yeltsin said February 4, "By his actions, Clinton might run into a world war... We are letting Clinton understand that we disagree with such policies. And the UN Security Council would vote against" military action against Iraq. Moscow has pushed for further diplomatic negotiations with Baghdad. White House spokesperson Michael McCurry stated that Yeltsin's remarks were poorly translated, and Russian officials assured the comment was not a threat that Moscow would defend Iraq militarily.

A front page article in the February 4 New York Times described the tone as "war fever" during a presentation of the White House's war plans to the Senate Armed Forces Committee the previous day. "If we're going to do this, let's go all the way," Senate majority leader Trent Lott told that meeting. "Let's hit 'em hard, right up front," he added.

Defense Secretary William Cohen told the committee that the military assault "would be far more than what has been experienced in the past, certainly since the Persian Gulf war." Cohen; Gen. Henry Shelton, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and Samuel Berger, national security adviser, also met with 75 senators to discuss Washington's military options. According to the Times, White House officials said February 4 that President William Clinton would approve plans for an attack on Iraq prior to Cohen's scheduled arrival February 8 for a tour of the Persian Gulf region.

Meanwhile, top Republican congressmen Lott and Newton Gingrich called for the impending assault to take on the explicit goal of removing Iraqi president Saddam Hussein from power. So far, the Clinton administration has focused its propaganda for military action on the pretext of stopping Baghdad from having "weapons of mass destruction."

Many ruling-class figures are now openly arguing for the assault to include using ground troops, in hopes of reaching the aim that Washington failed to achieve in the 1990 - 91 Gulf War - establishing a regime in Baghdad that would be subservient to the dictates of U.S. imperialism. "Air strikes are not going to solve the problem," said Rep. John Murtha, a Democrat. "You have to put people on the ground if you want to solve the problem."

In a February 2 column headlined "Battle Plan for Gulf War II," William Safire wrote that after "sustained bombing of all suspected weaponry sites, including palaces occupied by civilians used as hostages," Washington "should be prepared to go to Phase IV: invasion." Safire added, "If Saddam turned totally suicidal and tried germ warfare, he would invite a nuclear response."

In an op-ed piece in the January 30 New York Times, Robert Kagan, a former Reagan administration official and William Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard, likewise called for "finishing the task left undone in 1991." They declared, "If Mr. Clinton is serious .. he will order ground forces to the gulf. Four heavy divisions and two airborne divisions are available."

A bipartisan consensus for war has shaped up among virtually all big-business politicians and ruling-class figures in the United States. Senate majority leader Lott, and Thomas Daschle, the Democratic minority leader, have drafted a resolution urging Clinton to "take all necessary and appropriate actions" against Baghdad, which is expected to be adopted overwhelmingly in early February.

Continuing his "America First" demagogy, ultrarightist politician Patrick Buchanan declared, "One day, America is going to have to adopt the only plausible policy: deterrence. Tell Saddam that if he uses even one of his gas weapons on U.S. troops, we will use our atomic weapons on him. Period. We deterred Stalin and Mao that way." He dismissed the carpet bombing planned by Washington and chided the U.S. rulers to "see just how enthusiastic we really are about playing Globocop, if it comes to the serious shedding of American blood."

Another ultrarightist, Oliver North, called for "the right and the left" to "stop the recriminations" since the "question about what to do about Saddam Hussein is much more important than who's to blame." He proposed that the U.S. imperialists declare all of Iraq a "no-fly zone," and re-arm, and support the CIA-sponsored "Iraqi National Congress" that can be used to establish a "provisional government" backed by U.S. air power.

Massive U.S. firepower in the Gulf
Washington has assembled a massive armada in the region - the largest military deployment in the region since the Gulf War. There are two U.S. naval combat groups there with a third one on the way. The USS Nimitz and the USS George Washington aircraft carriers have an estimated 300 warplanes and at least five helicopters. The naval group en route includes the aircraft carrier Independence, a cruise ship, an attack submarine, and a destroyer. Washington also has stationed up to 120 combat aircraft in Saudi Arabia with 4,400 Air Force personnel; 30 war planes in Kuwait with 1,500 GIs; 50 aircraft in Turkey; and eight B52 bombers in Diego Garcia, an island in the Indian Ocean. A British aircraft carrier and related battleships are also in the Gulf. The U.S. 5th Fleet maintains its central command in Bahrain, where the U.S. Navy has had a presence for more than 50 years. Some 32 combat planes are deployed there.

The fighter jets can launch as many as 200 strikes a day for three or four days. During the 1991 Gulf War, 1,203 U.S. war planes were joined by 800 others that dropped 88,500 tons of bombs over 43 days. More than 500,000 GIs were deployed in Operation Desert Storm.

There are some 28,800 U.S. troops and 375 war planes currently in the Gulf region. Gen. Anthony Zinni, the commander of the U.S. military operation, has requested more troops, fighter planes, and bombers be sent there. The request includes around 2,500 soldiers for an armored brigade being sent to Kuwait for a previously planned military exercise.

"U.S. officials noted that the Clinton administration has changed American nuclear-weapons policy to permit targeting Iraq with tactical atomic warheads," the New York Post reported February 2. The article said the officials asserted that U.S. president William Clinton signed a "top-secret directive" permitting the U.S. military to drop nuclear bombs on Iraq under the pretext of Baghdad supposedly launching a biological attack on Israel or other countries.

As tensions escalate in the region, the Israeli military installed four batteries of U.S. Patriot missiles in its Negev desert February 2. "Missiles are not beginning to fly toward Tel Aviv," said Israeli president Ezer Weizman, referring to 1991 Gulf War when Baghdad launched Scud missiles at the Zionist regime. "And by the way, a missile does not only work in one direction," he threatened. Tel Aviv began distributing gas masks to civilians at the end of January, whipping up panic.

`Diplomacy' prepares ground for war
U.S. officials are now going through the motions of a "final round of diplomacy," as they announced they would when they launched the latest war drive against Baghdad in mid- January. Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations, Nizar Hamdoon, warned February 3, "The talk of a diplomatic solution is only to prepare the ground, to strengthen their arguments and finish up military preparations."

After wrapping up her trip of Europe and the Persian Gulf Albright crowed the same day, "I believe we'll have all the cooperation we need across the board." She boasted that none of the Arab leaders said, "Go home and tell the president not to use force."

The next day, however, a news report in the Associated Press contradicted her fable. "Egypt's president again came out against the use of military force," the article stated. "Kuwait remained alone in signaling its willingness to make its territory available for an attack." Even the generally pliant regime in Saudi Arabia withheld permission for Washington to use its air bases for offensive military operations, the Wall Street Journal reported February 3. Twice in recent years opponents of Washington's military presence have attacked U.S. forces in Saudi Arabia, including the June 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers that killed 19 U.S. soldiers and wounded hundreds of others.

"It's difficult for me to believe that an Arab country would accept a military strike on Iraq," said Esmat Abdel- Meguid, the Arab League secretary-general who traveled to Baghdad February 4.

Paris backed down somewhat from its stated opposition to an imperialist military assault. "I must say that all options are open," French foreign minister Hubert Vedrine told reporters at a January 29 joint news conference with Albright in Paris. "Lets adopt a strong resolution in the Security Council," said a French government official. "If it fails, maybe we have no other choice than to bomb."

British prime minister Anthony Blair arrived in Washington February 4 for meetings with Clinton and to begin a campaign to publicize the alleged dangers of the Iraqi government's arsenal.  
 
 
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