BY MAURICE WILLIAMS
U.S. armed forces in the Middle East are getting ready to launch a massive bombing assault against the people of Iraq. The military will be ready to start its attack "within a week or so," Gen. Anthony Zinni, the commander of U.S. forces in the Arab-Persian Gulf, declared February 11.

Three days earlier, U.S. secretary of state Madeleine Albright declared that the planned assault - to be carried out in the name of combating "weapons of mass destruction" - will be "substantial, sustained, and heavy."

Preparing for a massive slaughter of Iraqis, the Clinton administration has assembled the largest military force in the region since the 1990 - 91 Gulf War. More than 30,000 U.S. troops and some 400 U.S. warplanes are in the area. Washington deployed 40 more fighter planes to the region. A Pentagon official traveling with U.S. defense secretary William Cohen to the Middle East announced February 9 that 3,000 more GIs would join the 1,500 army soldiers in Kuwait. U.S. military officials announced February 5 that a four-ship contingent with 2,200 Marines would also join the armada in the Gulf. The first of eight British Tornado jets arrived in Kuwait February 9.

Two U.S. Marine Corp. war planes collided off the coast of Kuwait February 6 while practicing bombing missions, killing one pilot.

The U.S. rulers have begun cranking up the propaganda to try to shift blame on the Iraqi government for enormous "collateral damage," that is, Iraqi citizens who will be killed by Washington's bombing campaign. In a February 11 Wall Street Journal column, Karen House, president of Dow Jones & Co., wrote that Clinton will have to get U.S. citizens to accept "day after day. the bodies of innocent Iraqi civilians and realize those tragic casualties are preferable to bodies of Kuwaitis, Israelis or Americans."

On Jan. 16, 1991, the U.S. military began a round-the-clock bombardment of Iraq that lasted six weeks. The murder and devastation of the Iraqi people was described by U.S. officials as "collateral damage." They tried to emphasize the "precision" of the bombing and the "smartness" of the bombs. The allied bombers destroyed factories, bridges, irrigation systems, water purification facilities, and electrical stations.

Pretext of UN `weapons inspectors'
The Clinton administration escalated its war preparations this year after Baghdad blocked a group of UN "weapons inspectors" from snooping into Iraqi intelligence headquarters on January 13. Baghdad accused the head of the UN weapons inspection commission, Scott Ritter, of being a spy and complained that 14 out of the 16 members of group were U.S. and British officers. Ritter was a U.S. Marine intelligence officer during the 1991 Gulf War.

Revealing the political aims of the "UN inspectors," the Clinton administration earlier took steps to eliminate Cuban officials from the list of inspection teams and is considering making the same move against Iranians. A U.S. official claimed that this action ensured the "international organization is doing its job in an objective fashion."

An article in the February 11 Wall Street Journal explained that the weapon inspectors "have routinely given briefings to military officials in their home countries after returning from Iraq missions." One British "inspector," Ronald Manley, acknowledged, "Every time I returned home I was wheeled in" to the Ministry of Defense. U.S. representatives from the UN Special Commission would telephone their offices directly from Baghdad to deliver information, using U.S.-supplied phones, the Journal reported.

Last January Baghdad announced that presidential sites would be off limits to UN inspectors until April, provoking howls from U.S. government officials. "There has to be full, unconditional access to all sites - that's the bottom line," William Richardson, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said February 9. While Washington demanded indiscriminate access throughout Iraqi territory, the U.S. Congress passed legislation that gives the president the right to deny inspections of Washington's chemical weapons sites that "pose a threat to the national security interests of the United States."

Debate over methods of war moves
While the White House has achieved bipartisan support for the impending onslaught, a debate has deepened among the U.S. rulers over the aims and method of the military action. "I don't think there's a lot of enthusiasm. for the administration's policy, but once the die is cast and things are imminent, the overwhelming majority of members of the Senate will back the troops," Sen. Richard Shelby asserted.

Ultrarightist politician Patrick Buchanan sharpened his nationalist demagogy in a February 11 column. The article, titled "The New World Disorder," ridiculed the efforts by Republican president George Bush at the time of the first Gulf War, and Clinton today, to put together a international anti- Iraq coalition. He called Clinton's latest war move a "manifest failure" after noting that "only Britain's Tony Blair stands militarily at our side." Buchanan pointed out that Washington's imperialist allies act "out of selfish national interests" and insisted that the U.S. rulers "tell the world . we, too, shall put our own country first."

The clamor for assassinating Iraqi president Saddam Hussein or overthrowing his government is growing louder among big- business politicians and other ruling-class figures. Speaker of the House Newton Gingrich said military action that does not topple Hussein "is a defeat, not a success."

Richard Pearle, former assistant secretary of defense in the Reagan administration, demanded "no more halfway measures" in an article in the February 8 Washington Post. He called for Washington to set up a "provisional government" in Iraqi territory backed by U.S. air power. The puppet regime would be based on the CIA-sponsored Iraqi National Congress. "This strategy aims at eliciting a full-blown insurrection against Saddam Hussein, taking off from territory he does not control," Pearle said.

As Washington's countdown to war unfolds, 10 U.S. senators accompanied Defense Secretary Cohen to a February 7 - 8 security conference in Munich, Germany, to demand support for another war in the Gulf. In response to this barrage, German chancellor Helmut Kohl said air bases in Germany were available for U.S. military forces and "we must show solidarity for everything that needs to be done."

While Paris has continued pressing for a "diplomatic" solution to the crisis, French minister of defense Alain Richard assured Cohen that his government would demand Baghdad allow unconditional access for the weapons inspectors. U.S. ambassador William Richardson announced February 9 that he will travel to China and Japan to press support for military action. He had returned from a trip to eight countries - Gambia, Sweden, Portugal, Slovenia, Kenya, Brazil, Gabon, and Costa Rica - whose governments are among the nonpermanent member of the UN Security Council, to squeeze them to tow the line for the U.S. war drive.

Prime ministers Jean Chrétien of Canada and John Howard of Australia pledged military support for the imperialist intervention.

Most Middle Eastern governments are publicly expressing opposition to a military assault, with only the Kuwaiti regime openly supporting Washington's war preparations. The regime of Saudi Arabia, which was the main base for 500,000 U.S. troops during the 1991 Gulf War, has so far balked at permitting U.S. fighter planes to operate from its territory. But Cohen said he received private authorization for specific military activities that include rights to fly over territory and, in Oman, Kuwait, and Bahrain, to use bases for combat jets and support aircraft. Additionally, Cohen said the Saudi regime will allow U.S. military support aircraft to be based there.

Thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank rallied to protest the U.S. war moves against Iraq. In Bethlehem Israeli troops fired rubber bullets on a February 7 demonstration. On February 9 nearly 2,000 protesters marched in the West Bank town of Jenin and 150 marchers in Ramallah burned U.S., Israeli, and British flags. The next day the chief of the Palestinian police announced he had banned demonstrations.  
 
 
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