Iraq in Limbo

Paul Rogers, a Professor of Peace Studies at Bradford University, has written another excellent article on Iraq. He's partly writing in response to the reports that the military has nixed an invasion, at least for now. Again, he echoes his warning of the drastic consequences that an attack on Saddam - with the sole intent on displacing him from power - would bring:

...any attempt to destroy the regime, especially if it involves an occupation of Baghdad, could lead to intense urban warfare with many Americans killed. Furthermore, regime survival is at the heart of Saddam Hussein’s strategy. It has to be assumed that an attempt to destroy the regime itself – which is, after all, the intended aim of the whole operation – will most likely lead to the Iraqis using any chemical and biological weapons that they may now have. Moreover, such weapons would be used not just against US troops in Iraq itself, but against targets in neighbouring countries such as Kuwait.

In extreme circumstances of imminent regime destruction, attacks against Israel might even be contemplated in the expectation that there would be a massive response from the Sharon government leading to regional escalation. Given the existing levels of anti-American feeling across the Middle East, greatly exacerbated by recent Israeli actions, even an attack on Iraq that did not bring in Israel would heighten tensions to a remarkable degree.

Also on Sad-dam, Joshua Micah Marshall writes about how the neocons turned Iraq into the central goal of U.S. foreign policy.

Finally, Chris Floyd contributes this gem from a recent Moscow Times editorial:

Whatever the facts, the charge that Hussein "gassed his own people" has been the bloody shirt repeatedly waved by George W. Bush in his frantic bid to build support for an invasion of Iraq. Such an action, we are told, puts a nation beyond the pale of civilization and sends it hurtling into the abyss of ultimate evil. Any state that would "gas its own people" is, we're told, a rogue state, a terrorist state.

What then to make of the revelations last week that the United States "gassed its own people" during the Vietnam War? The Defense Department has admitted that the Pentagon sprayed more than 4,000 U.S. sailors with various substances, including the deadly nerve gas sarin and a gruesome biological toxin, in a four-year operation (1964-68) called Project SHAD, the New York Times reports.

Mr. Floyd betta watch it, or he's gonna get a flood of "moral equivalency" attacks. I mean, how dare someone hold Iraq and the US to the same standards...

Expect more comments on Iraq as time rolls on; the topic is not going away. And until we can figure out how to accomplish this task without killing large numbers of US troops (the thousands - perhaps millions - of Iraqis that would likely die from such an attack are hardly a blip on the radar), the demonization campaign against the "new Hitler" (Papa Bush's description) will surely continue. Especially, of course, from those plentiful chickenhawks.