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| Axis of Evil |
| US Directs Secret Attacks On Iraq |
| 2002-08-24 |
| Turkish jets escorted helicopters which carried Turkish commandos to seize the airport at Bamerni in northern Iraq, about 50 miles north of Mosul. On August 8, according to reports in the Turkish press, British and US special forces accompanied the Turkish force, which seized the airport after a short battle in which the Iraqi defenders were slaughtered. The occupation of Bamerni gives the US-Turkish forces the ability to strike at will at the Syrian-Iraqi railroad, a key supply link for Baghdad. And on the 12th of August Sammy was sending out defiant messages from his fueherbunker, 160 feet down... While a highly publicized debate continues in the pages of the American press on the subject of when and how — rather than whether — to launch a war with Iraq, the US military is pushing ahead with the logistical and technical preparations for the invasion and occupation of the Middle East country. More than 100,000 American and British troops are already on station in the region immediately surrounding the country. Significantly, according to several American press accounts, that is well above the minimum number of troops required under the most recent scenario for an invasion of Iraq proposed by General Tommy Franks, commander of the US Central Command. Franks reportedly briefed President Bush in the White House in early August on plans to attack Iraq with 50,000 to 80,000 troops, a force that could be made ready for operations in only two weeks, instead of the worst-case invasion scenario, requiring 250,000 troops and a three-month buildup, which CentCom originally proposed last May. There are also about 11,000 other scenarios being tossed around. Sammy must be so confused... Many of the US deployments are new, and publicly explained by Washington as measures being taken in the ongoing âwar on terrorism.â However, the largest groups of American and British troops are in position to attack Iraq, not Al Qaeda. These include 37,000 US troops in the Persian Gulf statesâup 12,000 since Marchâand 27,000 British troops in the same areaâup 7,000 over that time. The most rapid US buildup is in Turkey, with the US force swelling from 7,000 to 25,000 by the end of July. Some 6,400 US troops are in Jordan, with 4,000 arriving in the past week for joint exercises with the Jordanian army. Ummm... Yep. That's a bunch. Coordinating them must be something of a nightmare, but it's a lot of troops... A diagram of the location of American military forces in the Middle East, Central Asia and the Horn of Africa looks increasingly like a noose around Baghdad. US soldiers, sailors and airmen are now stationed in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Yemen, Eritrea and Kenya, with naval forces offshore in the Persian Gulf, the Arabian Sea, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. Kathy pointed that out a while back... Leading up to October 8th there were similar reports about Afghanistan. At one point Debka had the entire Russian 203rd Motorized Rifle Division, with its tanks and APCs, back in Afghanistan. Most of the reports turned out to be similarly apocryphal — though a few weren't. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #3 Fred, I don't get any respect! (I'm the Rodney Dangerfield of bloggers...), but I blogged about this joint US/British/Turkish attack on Bamerni, the tightening "noose" and the DebkaFile report a couple of weeks ago and got peanuts thrown at me by my commenters! At least coming from you and JihadUnspun, it sounds more official! |
| Posted by: Jennie Taliaferro 2002-08-26 18:49:43 |
| #2 I still think that the NA accession of armor (in working order no less) around Mazar i Sharif could only be explained by the Russians handing over about a motorized rifle regiment's material assets. It would not have taken the whole division. |
| Posted by: Tom Roberts 2002-08-24 16:56:25 |
| #1 Whew. If that jihadunspun website unspins any harder it's going to start a tornado going... (not that particular article, just their choice of 'news'). I think I'll take them with the same size grain of salt I take with Debka. ;) |
| Posted by: Kathy K 2002-08-24 10:42:28 |