The escalating air attacks are now mainly targeting Iraq’s antiaircraft defenses, with the purpose of establishing "air corridors" for bombing runs into Baghdad and other cities when an invasion and air assault are unleashed on the country. At least one raid has also dropped bombs on Iraqi anti-ship cruise missile sites.

As Washington and London continue these hostile flights over Iraqi territory and accelerate the imperialist military buildup in the region, the Bush administration has negotiated with Republican and Democratic Party leaders in Congress to prepare a joint war resolution pitched in the framework of the "national interest."

Bush administration figures emphasized that the White House was not depending on passage of the resolution to launch an offensive. One official said its "strategy is to use the Congress as leverage...to bring around the public, and leverage to make it clear to the UN that it’s not only George Bush who is prepared to draw a line in the sand."

The House-Senate resolution states that Bush can "use the Armed Forces of the United States as he determines to be necessary and appropriate in order to...defend national security" against Iraq. On October 2 Bush applauded Republican and Democratic leaders for their "tremendous work in building bipartisan support" for a joint resolution.

In an October 7 speech, the president laid out a series of demands on Iraq, including "declaring and destroying all of its weapons of mass destruction" and an end to "all illicit trade outside the [UN-sponsored] oil-for-food program."

"By taking these steps and only by taking these steps, the Iraqi regime has an opportunity to avoid conflict," said Bush. But "we have little reason to expect it. And that’s why two administrations, mine and President Clinton’s, have stated that regime change in Iraq is the only certain means of removing a great danger to our nation."  
 
UN ‘arms inspector’ backs Washington
A few days earlier, chief UN "arms inspector" Hans Blix, a Swedish official, declared support for Washington’s insistence that Baghdad be forced to make a rapid and full declaration of its alleged weapons programs.

There will be "very broad support" in the UN Security Council, Blix said, for a U.S.-British resolution calling for military-backed "inspection" teams with the power to go anywhere and interrogate anyone in Iraq, and to set up their own no-fly, no-drive zones wherever they carry out operations. Any incident deemed an Iraqi violation would "trigger" military action, U.S. officials have explained.

"If the United Nations won’t make the decision," Blix warned, "the United States will lead a campaign to disarm this man before he harms America."  
 
Imperialist rivals press own interests
Blix’s assurances notwithstanding, the governments of France and Germany, the two largest imperialist powers in continental Europe, have restated their opposition to the U.S.-British draft resolution.

Taking an anti-American posture, French president Jacques Chirac said on October 2 that both governments remain "totally hostile" to any resolution giving "an automatic character to military intervention" by Washington.

At the same time, Paris has indicated that it plans to deploy forces as part of any imperialist offensive, and Berlin has placed no restrictions on the Pentagon’s use of U.S. bases on German soil for the unfolding steps toward war.

The conflict between Washington and its European rivals over Turkey’s membership in the European Union (EU) has become sharper in the context of the imperialist war drive. "Hardly a week goes by without Washington telling the European Commission and member states to offer Turkey the perspective of eventual EU membership," one European diplomat told the Financial Times.

"The U.S. is exerting maximum pressure now," noted the London-based daily, "partly because of Turkey’s strategic and geographic importance if Washington decides to launch military strikes against Iraq." The EU powers granted Turkey candidate-member status in 1999 after some vigorous arm-twisting by the Clinton administration.

The member states of the EU, among which the German and French governments play dominant and frequently conflicting roles, have so far resisted U.S. pressure to unfreeze the Turkish government’s application. European diplomats have cloaked the snub to Washington in professed concerns about human rights violations in Turkey and the fact that the country, while secular, has a majority-Muslim population.

Meanwhile, the buildup in the Middle East continues apace. While U.S. marines land in Kuwait for exercises, the National Journal reported, "covert [CIA] teams slip into Iraq, ...army tanks rehearse crossing the Euphrates river" that divides Saudi Arabia from Iraq, and "transport vessels laden with supplies steam unheralded toward the Persian Gulf."  
 
Israeli regime opens Gaza offensive
As these war moves accelerate, the Israeli military has expanded its operations in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip. On October 7 an Israeli helicopter gunship launched a missile into a crowd of Palestinians in the Gaza town of Khan Yunis. The death toll from the missile attack stood at 13 by the next day. Israeli soldiers fired machine guns and semiautomatic weapons at the many wounded who tried to make their way to a nearby hospital. More than 100 people were injured, some critically.

While admitting that "some civilians" had been hit, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon described the assault, which also involved tanks, as "successful" and said, "There will be more operations" of this kind. Israeli commanders said the attack targeted the Palestinian organization Hamas as part of a new tactic.

U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher issued a routine statement saying that Washington was "troubled" by the "deaths and wounding of many Palestinian civilians."

Responding to "alarm" in Washington at public speculation by Israeli politicians about the possible timing of a U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and Israel’s response to aerial attacks from Baghdad, Sharon has told members of the government to stop "blabbering" about such matters.

"The U.S. administration," observed the October 7 Financial Times, "is eager to avoid anything that could inflame Arab opinion" in the lead-up to war, which will be waged from the many U.S. bases and platforms in the Gulf and the Arabian Peninsula.

At the same time, the White House has told Tel Aviv that it will be given advance warning of any U.S.-led invasion.

Unlike earlier statements by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Bush’s October 7 speech did not call on the Israeli regime to "stay out of the conflict with Iraq, even if it is attacked." The New York Times reported without comment that officers directing the U.S.-Israeli designed Arrow missile defense system--designed to shoot down the Iraqi Scuds shortly after their launch--have been trained to scramble Israeli fighter jets in order to attack Iraqi missile launch sites.

In a related development, the government of Jordan has stationed extra troops on its borders with Iraq and with the West Bank, from which it is separated by the Jordan River. The reinforcements anticipate a massive influx of people, both from a U.S. invasion of Iraq and an Israeli offensive to drive Palestinians across the river. In the past, Sharon has expressed support for such an enforced exodus.

In a visit to the United States in late September, Jordan’s foreign minister underlined his government’s support for the U.S.-led war effort. "If it comes down to war, we are not going to allow our strategic friendship with the United States to be jeopardized," he said. In return for this pledge, Washington "is not asking Jordan for permission to deploy American troops from Jordanian territory," an unnamed diplomat told the New York Times. King Abdullah has pointed out the explosive impact such a move would have on the combative Palestinian population inside Jordan’s borders.  
 
 
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