A deployment on that scale would almost triple the total number of U.S. fighting forces in the region. "We’re flowing forces now," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on the "Larry King Live" show, referring to the accelerating troop buildup.

Military equipment and vehicles are also being moved more rapidly into the region. The USNS Watson and USNS Charlton, each with a capacity of 62,000 tons, arrived in the Middle East in mid-December, while the USS Pililaau began loading in Beaumont, Texas. The Yano is scheduled to load equipment at Charleston, South Carolina. Laden down with materiel, these ships take about 30 days to reach the Gulf, say military officials.

The British ministry of defense has announced that it will deploy 20,000 troops to the region in the coming weeks. Royal Marines will be among the forces, reported the Daily Telegraph, "amid increasing signs of plans for an amphibious landing in southern Iraq."

Ships are being chartered to ferry equipment, including tanks and other supplies. Meanwhile, the Ark Royal aircraft carrier will lead a six-ship task force to the Gulf in January.

The government has already alerted 6,500 reservists to be ready to be called into action. "The key thing at the moment," said Prime Minister Blair, "is to make all the preparations necessary, and to make sure that we are building up the capacity in the region, both the Americans and ourselves--and that we are able to undertake this mission if it falls to us to do so."

Under the name of "psychological operations," U.S. planes in southern Iraq have begun transmitting radio broadcasts "targeted at military commanders as well as civilians," reported the BBC on December 17. Side by side with this propaganda effort, U.S. and British aircraft carried out their seventh leaflet drop, warning Iraqi crews of fatal consequences if they repair "communications facilities" hit in air strikes December 14.

"Not all American military analysts are convinced that psychological warfare will succeed," noted the British news organization. The report cited an article by William Arkin, a former army intelligence officer and present newspaper columnist. If the U.S. invades Iraq, wrote Arkin in the Baltimore Sun, "bombs are going to do the talking."

U.S. and British air attacks on the so-called "no-fly zones"--large swathes of territory in the north and south of Iraq--have become "almost a daily operation," noted David Halton in a December 16 report on CBC TV. "It looks like a dress rehearsal for a full-scale bombing campaign, and it may well be exactly that."

Since March of this year, the tonnage of bombs dropped on Iraq has increased by 300 percent, reported the channel.  
 
Washington scorns Iraqi report
In a December 19 news conference Secretary of State Colin Powell declared that the Iraqi government was in "material breach" of United Nations resolutions. Powell asserted that Baghdad’s December 7 report on its weapons programs "totally fails to address" the accusation that it builds and stores "weapons of mass destruction." The Iraqi report denies the charge.

"The burden remains on Iraq...to cooperate fully and for Iraq to prove...whether it does or does not have weapons of mass destruction," said Powell. "We are convinced they do until they prove to us otherwise." Hans Blix, who heads the UN crews that are carrying out weapons "inspections," backed up the U.S. politician.

To date the intrusive searches of industrial, scientific, and government sites have turned up no proof of any such programs.

"We expected [Iraqi president Saddam Hussein] to show that he would disarm, and as the secretary of state said, it is a long way from there," said Bush on December 20.

The U.S. president has said that he will cancel a mid-January trip to Africa in order to be on hand in Washington for decisions on Iraq. The UN Security Council is set to hear a report from Blix on January 27, and Bush is scheduled to make his annual State of the Union address the next day.

The Washington Post was one of many news organizations to note that the U.S. deployment of tens of thousands of additional troops to the Middle East and accelerated delivery of arms and equipment "would give President Bush the option of beginning combat operations in late January or early February."  
 
Probes against Iran
With Iraq squarely in their military sights today, the U.S. rulers are also mounting propaganda probes against Iran. "We are concerned about Iranian proliferation efforts that might lead to a nuclear weapon," said Powell on December 18.

"I understand Iran has been caught constructing a secret underground site where it could produce fissile material," said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher, offering no evidence for the assertion. A Fox News journalist claimed that "satellite images released last week show movement in two of Iran’s nuclear facilities."

In a Voice of America radio broadcast on December 20, Bush urged the Iranian people to become "a full partner in the international community." In his January 2002 State of the Union speech, Bush had targeted Iran, Iraq, and north Korea as members of "an axis of evil."

Washington’s hostility to Iran dates from the 1979 overthrow of the U.S.-installed and backed Shah--who, alongside Israel, was the most reliable ally of imperialism at the time --at the hands of a revolutionary movement of working people.

Union fighters in the oil industry and other industrial workers played a decisive part in those events.

The self-confidence won in that struggle and victory is still a living force today and an impediment to Washington’s plans to roll back the revolution.

Millions of people demonstrated throughout the country last February in answer to the threats behind the "axis of evil" charge made by Bush.  
 
 
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