Behind the official debate, US builds up forces for attack on Iraq:
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. …
Many of the US deployments are new, and publicly explained by Washington as measures being taken in the ongoing �war on terrorism.� 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 states�up 12,000 since March�and 27,000 British troops in the same area�up 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.
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.
The Iraq sham is probably scheduled for shortly after the first anniversary of ‘9-11′ for maximum effect in whipping the proles into patriotic blood thirst.