The United States struck a surface to surface missile site near Basra
justifying that strike by saying that the installation was a threat
to western shipping in the Persian Gulf. That sortie and the justification
for it make it awfully hard to maintain the fiction that the American
led Second Iraqi War has not already begun. In every previous air
strike on Iraqi territory the public justification has always been
the protection of allied fliers patroling the US proclaimed "no
fly zones" by destroying radars and command and control facilities
when patroling planes have been allegedly targeted. No such excuse
has been offered for this strike.
It comes at a time when the troops are on the move. The deployment
of American forces, Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine units will be
in theatre and in place before the UN Security Council receives the
preliminary report of the inspectors on January 27th. Prime Minister
Blair announces that the US-UK alliance is not imposing an "arbitrary
deadline" for war and the chief of the UN atomic energy commission
tells us that it may take a year for the present inspection regime
to prove effective - one way or another. Richard Perle is touring
Europe saying that no weapons have been found or turned over so we
must assume that they are hidden.
Meanwhile the North Koreans just tested a multi stage rocket - apparently
successfully. It crossed Japanese airspace and landed about 1,000
miles out in the Pacific. Russia is sending its fleet to investigate.
While the North Korean rocket may not have the range to impact the
populated United States the American base on Okinawa, the logical
staging area for operations on the Korean penisula, is certainly in
range.
The American public has been listening to the drums of war in an uninterupted
crescendo since September 11, 2001. With its sons and daughters bound
for the Persian Gulf America still supports going to war - but with
a dwindling majority and grave misgivings about going it alone. The
administration cannot afford the political cost of dawdling. The airwar
preparation of the battlefield has already begun and will rise in
intestity over the coming three weeks. We can expect American boots
on Iraqi ground about Groundhogs Day and bodybags and busted dreams
thereafter.
