How long before Iraq is struck?

[echarcha]

So folks,

What are your guesses about Iraq being struck? When do you think Iraq will be in a war?

Please - no reasons like Iraq should or should not be bombed,. etc. We have discussed those already. Just reasoning and opinion about when you think Iraq qill face its first bomb shell.

And i fyou think it will not, then explain that too.

[GpeL]

Somewhere I heard that insider sources are saying feb 21st.. fox news I think.

[BlrBoy]

Elections are over.. things are expected to cool down...maybe there will be no war at all.. untill next year.. when Bush is up for re-elections..

[Zen]

75,000 troops are deployed Daily military expense is doubled. War is inavitable.

[GpeL]

Originally posted by BlrBoy
Elections are over.. things are expected to cool down...maybe there will be no war at all.. untill next year.. when Bush is up for re-elections..

I heard the same argument from someone but I tend to disagree. If nothing is done, it will be percieved as bush's weakness but if he gets So-damn in a quick action then his second term as president is certain. But if the war drags on, and there is heavy toll on both $$ and lives, and/or the economy takes beating because of a prolonged war, bush will lose his popularity.

Anything is possible.. the suspense is really intersting.

[BlrBoy]

But the war beat is certainly dropped down from what it was before elections..

Bush cannot wage a war with what proof he has with him..

[Big-G]

Before Summers.

[Lovey]

American Summers or Australian Summers .

[kameena]

Bush will order invasion. But to appear sensitive to world media he won't order it till the UN inspectors submit their report. But then he can order the report to be lawyer speak which can be interpreted either way.

So 27th Jan the inspectors send in report, US army start marching by 1st Feb.

[Freedom_Peace]

For sure it will be after Feb 12th ....
After Hajj..... so he will come up with some excuse or another material breach..... bla bla in first week of Feb.... then warn Saddam just to make it look like we gave him time bla bla and then bombing will start in third week....
Another reason Hajis from few islamic countires in Mecca will try to organize some protest here and there if he starts bombing before Haj.....

[Freedom_Peace]

Nobel winner Tutu slams U.S., Blair

LONDON, England -- Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the prominent anti-apartheid campaigner and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has condemned the United States over its policy in the crisis over Iraq.

And he told a British TV programme on Sunday that UK Prime Minister Tony Blair's support for the U.S. over Iraq was "mind-boggling."

"When does compassion, when does morality, when does caring come in?" Tutu told ITV's Jonathan Dimbleby programme.

"I just hope that one day that people will realise that peace is a far better path to follow," said Tutu, who always rejected violence during his long years of opposition to apartheid in South Africa.

Tutu said he was "deeply saddened" to see the U.S. and Britain preparing for war with Iraq, and accused the U.S. government of maintaining a double standard over weapons of mass destruction.

The Nobel Peace laureate said Washington was failing to heed the rest of the world as it tried to disarm Iraq.

"Many, many of us are deeply saddened to see a great country such as the United States aided and abetted extraordinarily by Britain," Tutu said.

"I have a great deal of time for your prime minister, but I'm shocked... to see a powerful country use its power frequently unilaterally," he added. "I mean the United States says, 'you do this' to the world -- 'If you don't do it we will do it.' That's sad."

The U.S. -- backed by Britain -- has threatened to use force to disarm Iraq if President Saddam Hussein does not scrap all chemical and biological weapons, as required by United Nations Security Council resolutions.

Tutu said the United States had not used the same threat of force on other countries with weapons of mass destruction, such as nuclear-armed India and Pakistan.

"If we are going to say that weapons of mass destruction, that's one of your criteria now, what you do with weapons of mass destruction in Europe, what do you do with them in India, what do you do with them in Pakistan? Where do you stop?" Tutu said.

"Let's hear what these U.N. weapons inspectors get to see," he added. "But if you are going to apply as strictly as you want U.N. resolutions there, you ask why there and not in other places. Why not in Palestine?"

A former Archbishop of Cape Town, Tutu won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his efforts to bring a nonviolent end to South Africa's apartheid regime and later headed the country's post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commissio
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe...utu/index.html

[Rana]

On 27th Jan, Blix is supposed to submit the final report of inspwction to UN, on 28th Bush has the state of the union address. He will declare his plan in his speech on 28th.

[Freedom_Peace]

Originally posted by Rana
On 27th Jan, Blix is supposed to submit the final report of inspwction to UN, on 28th Bush has the state of the union address. He will declare his plan in his speech on 28th.

No War before Hajj..... Note it down.
Bush is dumb but not Stupid... is there any difference... Crusade starts after Haj.

[GpeL]

When is Hajj? Also what has Iraq got to do with Hajj.. I thought all Hajj destinations are in SA? (I mean other than the fact that Iraq is an Islamic nation).

[Freedom_Peace]

Originally posted by GpeL
When is Hajj? Also what has Iraq got to do with Hajj.. I thought all Hajj destinations are in SA? (I mean other than the fact that Iraq is an Islamic nation).

Pelu...its the most important day in islamic calender.... Muslims from around the world go to Mecca to perform Haj... Its more Sacred than ramazan if you want to compare....

Haj is on 11th feb