Saddam claims that UN inspectors have "hidden agendas."

c.i.- You want my opinion? Last summer. there was talk about starting the war in the winter. I think that is the plan, and I think that it was always the plan, probably in the next month or so. I think all this media hype is doing is keeping everyone guessing, while the military is making preparations as far as personnel and equipment are concerned!

I'm guessing that if I was in his shoes I'd see inspectors being forced down my throat as having hidden agendas too. I suspect that since he's ratcheting up the talk about the inspectors now instead of the US the inspectors must be getting a little to close to something for his comfort but that is purely a guess on my part.

I still don't think we should jump the gun and that if we go in before something is found it doesn't bode well for the US in the long run.

Phoenix, It surprises me to see Bush's restraint of late, because his initial rhetoric was so much more hawkish. I credit Powell for cooling of the rhetoric. As for our deployment of troops to the region, I'm sure it's to show Saddam that "we mean business," as well as to prepare for the upcoming war.

fishin, I'm with you: we should not jump the gun and start shooting before the inspectors find any WOMD. We need to catch Saddam and his henchmen in the lie.

c.i.

Hidden agenda I wonder what hidden agenda he is talking about. Their agenda is quite clear. To find WMD's and catch Saddam in a lie.
As to the preemptive strike.
It would be preferable if Saddam is caught in a lie. However, whether he is or is not is irrelevant the US and it's ally will attack and I believe relatively soon.
Why because if we do not and Saddam retains control in Iraq Bush with his cowboy mentality will feel he has lost face and he will never let that happen. And why soon? Simply because we cannot allow a force to sit around waiting indefinitely.

I agree, their agenda has been clear--to seek out the alleged WOMDs purported by this administration to be in Saddam's possession. Likewise, the conclusion of this comic opera farce was foregone long before any inspector set foot on Iraqi soil. Whether they find anything or not, we'll go in anyway. Meanwhile, North Korea ramps up to begin producing half a dozen nukes a year. Oh yeah, and al Qaeda (remember them?) is still out there and quite unaffected by any attack on Iraq.

That's what really frosts my balls (excuse the language--but it says exactly what i feel), this is a very expensive side trip for our nation, when we are supposed to be fighting a "war against terrorism." What have we done so far? Beat up on the lunatic administration of a country that's been bleeding for the last 30 years. What have we done for the Afghans since they dropped out of the headlines? Squat. The Shrub's a loose cannon, i certainly hope the electorate have the good sense to ditch him in 2004.

Good sense and the American electorate I sometimes believe they are mutually exclusive.

Too bad, so sad . . . thanks fer burstin' the bubble there, Boss, i needed that . . .

au, You've got that right! c.i.

Setanta, Whatever GW is doing to concentrate all his and our countries energy into this war with Iraq is so misplaced, it makes you wonder why his round table of 'higher intelligence seems to walk in lockstep with their leader. I can understand why Saddam's henchmen follow, but not GW's. Anybody out there have an answer? c.i.

Yeah, but it wouldn't be nice or fair . . . in the introduction to his 1930's era biography of Louis XIV, the "great" French historian Hillaire Belloc described FDR as a monarch. When first i read this, my immediate thought was that Belloc did not understand how the American political system worked. I still feel that is true, with regard to his misunderstanding of the US in the 1930's. Given that the nation was in the throes of economic collapse, Congress gave FDR almost everything he wanted. Then "those nine old men" stepped in, and took many of his toys away. It is also worth noting that the Congress did not give up their right to initiate and approve money bills, nor their power to make war, nor their right to advise to give or withhold consent on treaties and government appointments.

However, the way Congress rolled over for the Shrub on his Iraqi war powers (and didn't even get their collective belly scratched) is just disgusting. To me, the Shrub looks more like a monarch than FDR. Rather reminds me Charles le Bien Aimé, the mad boy king of France during the Hundred Years War--only not as bright . . .

Panic! We had just been exposed to an attack on the American mainland something that had never happened before. Although it had been talked about as a possibility most of the American people and I would dare say government officials never really expected it to happen. It was upon us and the people wanted and expected action. To deny the president the perceived means to retaliate and maintain national security would have be political suicide.

I believe the president is still reading off the teleprompters with words of his 'Regents' scrolling through.

While this 'wag the dog' WMOD issue may play to the fears of the anxious in the general US public, it seems relatively obvious that Big-boys-club economics are at play here; that of oil and military industries.

And although Mr. Bush is firmly entrenched in the same big-boy-club neighborhood, I still put my money on him more as a marionette than the mastermind.

Hi gravy, WELCOME to A2K. Glad to see you participate in this discussion. c.i.

i think au1929 has it right; we have had this inane idea that NO ONE would ever dare to attack us at home. this says more about a national ego than anything else. we was pissed and demanded revenge, common sense out the door, kick the dog, pound the table, shoot somebody by gawd, and it didn't much matter who. we have pretty much fogotten Osama mostly because we HAVE to have a dog to kick, and there sits Saddam a perfect snarling dog.

au and dys, I think the attack on our homeland is only part of the scenario. After all, the twin towers were attacked some years before. That was the warning shot over our bow, but for some reason our government just ignored it. "Kick the dog" has a nice ring to it, but most Americans are pretty level minded and more sophisticated - I think. c.i.

I agree with the "kick the dog" theory, though it is sad to see that all these dogs were hatched(/bred/fed) by us(US) just years ago (Saddam our "fighting friend" against the ayatollah and Osama our "champion jihadist" against the evil empire...)

Is it political myopia that causes us to repeat history, or do we do this on purpose, since professional dog-kickers would be out of business without dogs?

Remember Afghanistan? It worries me that the US is going to follow that old pattern of leaving before the country we have promised to help is strong enough to survive.

Saddam is a sociopath and Iraq would be much better off without him, but without the support of the UN Security Council, it will quickly deplete the budget we have set aside for Afghanistan.

Afghan refugees freeze to death
AP, Dec 13, 2002


KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - It has been a cold welcome for many of the 1.8 million Afghan war refugees who streamed home after the fall of the Taliban last year. The luckier ones spend freezing nights in bullet-scarred ruins in Kabul. The unlucky sleep huddled together under frail plastic tents.
Returning after years in squalid camps in neighboring Pakistan and Iran, the refugees hoped for a better life here. But with few jobs and fewer places to live, many are now hoping just to survive Afghanistan´s harsh winter.
"At night the cold is so bad, it´s frightening," said Taza Gul, the elderly head of a family of 11 that lives under a tiny roadside tent. "It may get worse, we don´t know. Our fate depends on Allah."
The U.N. refugee agency estimates 560,000 people will be particularly vulnerable this winter because they lack adequate housing, food and the means to keep warm, the agency spokeswoman Maki Shinohara said.
Many are in danger simply because they live in remote rural areas where roads will likely be cut off by snowfall blocking most emergency aid from getting through.
The United Nations has been trying to head off any crisis by distributing tens of thousands of blankets, wood stoves, fuel and plastic sheeting, Shinohara said.
The U.N. World Food Program has delivered 51,000 tons of food nationwide, 95 percent of its winter target. The rest is expected to be delivered before the end of December.
Authorities hope those supplies will get desperate families through January and February - the harshest winter months.
Shinohara said the United Nations was holding the bulk of its winter stockpile in reserve in case of emergencies, such as a severe drop in temperature or a new conflict that would displace more civilians.
Shinohara said the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was especially concerned about the snowy central highlands, where temperatures could drop to minus 22 degrees.
Southern Afghanistan, though warmer, was also a concern because of some 400,000 internally displaced refugees there, Shinohara said.
This weekend, 10 children died in the southern border town of Spinboldak during what the refugee agency called "unusually cold weather." The exact cause of the deaths, however, was still unknown, the agency said.
Rural Development Minister Hanif Asmar told The Associated Press those most at risk this winter were families like Gul´s - returnees living in destroyed houses, tents - or worse. He estimated their numbers at 240,000 across the country.
"The situation in urban areas, particularly among those families living in open spaces or dilapidated buildings, is still precarious," Asmar said. "We´re doing quite a lot to assist them, but not all of them have yet been covered."
Gul said aid agencies had handed out trucks full of charcoal to people living in tents next to his. But he said many, including his own family, were overlooked.
Asmar said Gul´s family was not helped because until recently aid groups had been operating on their own without consulting the central government to coordinate efforts.
At a conference in January in Tokyo, donor countries pledged $4.5 billion to get Afghanistan back on its feet over the next five years. Government officials have said that up to four times that amount is needed. President Hamid Karzai has said the bulk of the money has been delivered via the United Nations or humanitarian aid groups, not the central government. Officials estimate $1.8 billion has been committed so far this year.
"We haven´t received help from anybody," Gul said as several of his children and grandchildren, blankets draped across their backs, warmed their hands over a tiny clay pot filled with a few piece of coal.
"We don´t even have enough money to buy firewood," Gul said. "I have to send my children to beg for it."

Severe Cold Kills 41 Afghan Refugee Children
Reuters, Dec 15, 2002

SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Forty-one children have died of severe cold this month at camps for Afghan refugees on the border with Pakistan, an aid worker said on Sunday.
Haji Abdul Ghani, of the Pakistan-based Edhi Welfare Trust, told Reuters squalid living conditions in four temporary camps in and around the southern Afghan town of Spin Boldak had combined with freezing temperatures to threaten another 1,200 children, most below the age of eight.
Ghani said pneumonia, tuberculosis and malaria were the most prevalent diseases. He said he feared the number of children falling sick and dying could increase rapidly.
Almost 100,000 people live in camps at Spin Boldak without adequate clothing or shelter to keep out the cold in an area where temperatures often plunge to minus 15C (5F), Ghani said.
Another 35,000 are crammed into similar camps on the Pakistan side of the border, which has been sealed by Pakistani troops pursuing Taliban and al Qaeda remnants from Afghanistan.
Farid Ahmed Karimi, a spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said it had confirmed 13 deaths in camps on both sides of the border.
He said pneumonia had been the biggest killer and UNHCR would distribute warm clothes and footwear to the displaced families crammed into makeshift shelters and tents on Sunday.
Afghanistan has an estimated 700,000 internally displaced people. About 400,000 are scattered around southern areas of the country, most having been forced from their homes as a result of a long-running drought.
UNHCR called for urgent international rehabilitation and reconstruction assistance to drought-affected regions of Afghanistan.
Several thousand Afghans have died in the past four years of drought, the worst to hit the country in about four decades.
Nearly two hundred of the deaths were caused by extreme cold in one night two years ago at a camp for displaced people in the western city of Herat.
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Diane, It's more the reason why all of us should be more concerned about our invasion of Iraq. It's not justified by any reasonable man/woman rationale. c.i.