Keith, I've heard here that the British ground troops will not actually be expended in the offense. It will be an American effort. They are window dressing to prove we have allies on the field. No doubt air and marine support will be coordinated.
This could be simply to give Blair some political air, so that British lives are not lost, or it could be that this is the way that Central Command controls the offense, or it could be that US troops are not currently under the thumb of the world international war crimes court. Are the British? While we are just speculating, it could also be a way to keep the psychological images of the bloody invaders separated from the peacekeepers later who deliver humanitarian aid and security during a lengthy occupation. Right now there are those who very much want the US military to be feared around the world. 'Shock and Awe' should send a strong message. We don't want the N Koreans to get any Lilliputian ideas about outwitting a giant. Karen I'm beginning to think that the British Army will not be fighting in Iraq, nor even driving over the border in their battle wagons to take up 'peace-keeping' duties. General Sir Mike Jackson flew into Kuwait yesterday, was video'd backslapping a few soldiers of different ranks and then flew home again. His purported reason for going, which he joked about to camera, was that there is some low morale due to insufficient supplies and that the Brits are having to borrow things like desert goggles and tins of corned beef from the Americans. "There's no need to worry," he said to a BBC TV journalist, "we have a couple of ships coming in soon." This reason for such a tedious back-and-forth airplane flight by the Chief of the British Defence Staff is hardly likely. The reason has to be much more important than the given. So, after ruminating on this, I turned to the FT to see whether there was a clue there. Tucked away at the end of an item written by well-respected Tom Odell, was an innocent-looking sentence: "Defence sources say there is some unease in the military about the validity of the case for war". That's more like it. Furthermore, I'd suggest that the "unease in the military" is not incipient mutiny by the troops (they seem happy enough playing Cowboys and Indians, charging around the Kuwaiti desert in their armoured cars and jeeps) but deep feelings at senior levels in the Ministry of Defence. At least two former British Defence Staff Chiefs and a former long-serving Head of the Foreign Office have publicly stated recently that the objectives of a war in Iraq are not clear enough or important enough to mount a major campaign. I'm not suggesting a senior-level mutiny but I think General Jackson has picked up enough clues within the Whitehall establishment to guess that the British part in the whole operation will be called off soon. He went to Kuwait to tell his senior officers that they must be prepared to tell their troops in a day or two that they are not going to invade after all. And then, this morning on BBC radio, there is an intriguing report that "several Ministerial aides" are rumoured to be at the point of resigning without a second non-vetoed UN Resolution. Note the "several"; note that this has been leaked (and not actually carried out so far). This rumour would not be surfacing unless the aides have been given a nod and a wink by their Ministerial bosses. It's the gentlest way of telling Blair that his policy (and his job) is now in peril and that this week-end he'd better renounce his support for Bush or else face the consequences of a major split in the Labour Party next week. Keith Hudson ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------ Keith Hudson, General Editor, Handlo Music, http://www.handlo.com 6 Upper Camden Place, Bath BA1 5HX, England Tel: +44 1225 312622; Fax: +44 1225 447727; mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
