The Washington Post reported that "the move will bring to the Gulf hundreds of Army and Marine planners who would coordinate any thrust by land forces into Iraq."

With headquarters elements of the Navy and Air Force already in place and a U.S. Central Command contingent due to arrive in the region next month, "the addition of the ground force groups will complete the command structure that would manage any invasion," the Post noted.

In recent weeks U.S. and British forces have continued to build up their military equipment in the region, carried out training exercises by U.S. troops likely to take part in an invasion, and stepped up fitting of aircraft carriers that can be sent from U.S. ports. Washington’s and London’s warplanes have also been increasing the frequency of their bombing raids in northern and southern Iraq.

Arabic-language propaganda leaflets, dropped by U.S. planes in the tens of thousands near the Tallil Air Base in southern Iraq October 3, warned Iraqi air defense crews that "the destruction experienced by your colleagues in other air defense locations is a response to your continuing aggression toward planes of the coalition forces. No [radar] tracking or firing on these aircraft will be tolerated. You could be next."

After carrying out their provocation, the intruding forces acted on their threat on the spot. When Iraqi forces responded in self-defense, the warplanes bombed Iraqi air defense facilities and an integrated defense operations center.

U.S. and British planes have attacked the Tallil Air Base at least seven times since mid-September. Located about 160 miles southeast of Baghdad, near the country’s border with Kuwait, Tallil is an "air defense sector headquarters," with runways for fighter aircraft and "surface-to-air missiles," Associated Press military correspondent Robert Burns reported October 15.

Al Kut, Al Amarah, and Basra airport are other major air defense sites that have been frequent targets. All told, imperialist forces have carried out 23 bombing raids in southern Iraq since August 27.

Many such attacks are launched by U.S. and British planes taking off from bases in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Other aircraft are stationed at the al Udeid air base in Qatar and elsewhere in the Arab-Persian Gulf, as well as on the aircraft carriers of the U.S. and British fleets.

Four such carriers and their battle groups --including destroyers, cruisers and submarines --are intended to be "within striking distance of Iraq by the end of December," Reuters news service reported October 3. Two are already stationed in the region on six-month tours of duty that are expected to be extended, and the other two will sail from U.S. ports in November and December. Together, the battle groups will include up to 250 strike aircraft and more than 2,000 Tomahawk cruise missiles. A fifth carrier could also be in the region by the end of the year.

Since the 1990–91 Gulf War, the Pentagon has stationed tens of thousands of U.S. military personnel in its bases in the Middle East, positioned for a renewed attack on Iraq and other military interventions. The pace of military maneuvers in Oman--where British ground forces are concentrated--Kuwait, and elsewhere has picked up in recent months, at the same time as the cycle of rotation of troops out of the area has slowed down or come to a halt.

After an October 8 incident in which two men shot at U.S. marines involved in "urban assault" training on the Kuwaiti island of Failaka, Kuwaiti police detained some 50 people for questioning. Kuwait’s authorities have since charged a total of 15 people with aiding the attack.

The two Kuwaiti men, Anas Ahmad Ibrahim al-Kandari, 21, and Jassem Mubarak al-Hajri, 26, killed one U.S. soldier and wounded another before themselves being killed. One friend said that earlier this year Kuwaiti security forces had interrogated and tortured them.

On October 10 Bush administration officials told reporters from major newspapers that the White House is developing detailed plans to install "an American-led military government" following an invasion and occupation of Iraq. Under this blueprint, the New York Times reported, a U.S. military commander "would assume the role that Gen. Douglas MacArthur served in Japan after its surrender in 1945."

One unnamed "senior official" told Times reporters that even if dissident Iraqi military officers mounted a successful coup against the present government, "the American military might enter and secure the country anyway."

Meanwhile, the Bush administration has had "extensive informal discussions" with the Australian government, reported the October 4 Australian Financial Review, about assigning "Australian special forces to fight in the early phase of a military campaign against Iraq." U.S. officials, the Sydney-based daily said, "were impressed with the performance of Australia’s special forces in Afghanistan."

Following a car bombing on the Indonesian island of Bali that killed almost 200 people, John Howard, the prime minister of the Liberal-National Party coalition government, ordered the dispatch of four Royal Australian Airforce Hercules transport aircraft to bring injured Australian citizens back to hospitals in Darwin.

Inside Australia, Howard instructed officials to review security at airports and other "potential targets" of "terrorism." Robert Carr, the Labor Party state premier of New South Wales, proposed on October 14 that "military units" should work with police to "protect" Sydney, the country largest city.

The government of Indonesia itself announced that police and soldiers would increase their patrols around U.S.-owned properties in the country’s substantial energy industry, including an Exxon Mobil liquefied natural gas plant and a Caltex refinery on the island of Sumatra.

U.S. and Australian police investigators have been sent to Indonesia to join the investigation around the bombing incident, and the British and German governments said they might send agents as well.

U.S. officials, attributing the explosion to Al-Qaeda, have been pressing the Indonesian government to take measures acceptable to Washington to "crack down on terrorism." Indonesian president Megawati Sukarnoputri is preparing to issue an executive decree to bypass parliament and enact an "antiterrorism" law giving police wider powers to conduct arrests and other repressive measures.  
 
 
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