War Against Iraq

God is everywhere in these frightening times, His name and his blessing invoked by an astonishing variety of conflicting forces. God is invoked by al-Qaida and the Taliban. He is invoked by the Hezbollah in Lebanon (Hezbollah means Party of God). He is invoked by Islamic Jihad in Israel and Palestine. The Jihad's chief enemies, Israeli settlers in the West Bank, assert they are there because God promised the land to Abraham, their religious ancestor - no matter that Abraham also was the religious ancestor of Islam.

It's so much fun to hate the French. Their fries, their toast, which they don't call French, by the way. Their food, their wine, their culture, their history, their perfume, their beautiful women, their chic, their literature, their art, their museums and cathedrals. Paris. Ugh. It's almost April. Don't you just hate the place? And their politicians. Quel swine! Jacques Chirac? Dead meat, Mack. He won't do war against Eye-Rack. The French must be punished. Americans are dumping their french fries and toast - well, not really; just renaming them.

You would think the Democrats would have found their issue by now. You would think the Democratic Party would have decided to become the party of peace.But, no, it can't decide. It can't decide whether it wants to back President Bush in a war against Iraq or whether it wants to oppose him.So, instead, the Democrats will do what they do best: They will hesitate.And what a lost opportunity this is.The Democrats have long been blamed for launching wars. In 1976, in a vice presidential debate, Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Saudi Arabia, one of the United States' strongest allies in the Middle East, said yesterday that it would take no part in an American-led invasion of "brotherly Iraq" and warned against a breakup of the country in the wake of a war. As if to punctuate the reasons for that position, an explosion ripped through a house in the capital earlier yesterday, killing a man who was apparently building a bomb. The government is investigating any possible link to al-Qaida. Reading a statement on state television yesterday evening in the name of King Fahd, who is incapacitated, Crown Prince Abdullah, the country's de facto ruler, said, "The kingdom will not participate in any way in the war" against Iraq, adding that Saudi Arabia's armed forces would not enter Iraqi territory.

ANKARA, Turkey - After months of foot-dragging, Turkey's government asked Parliament yesterday to authorize the basing of 62,000 U.S. troops in Turkey for use in a possible war against Iraq. A vote is expected this week. The government sent the proposal to Parliament even though it is negotiating with the United States on terms of deployment and the size of an aid package. Turkey has been demanding billions of dollars in grants and loans in exchange for its support in a war against Iraq.

JAKARTA, Indonesia - Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, is opposed to military action to topple Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, the foreign minister said yesterday. The minister, Hassan Wirajuda, said that "regime change" through military intervention "would be difficult to accept." Instead, he said that Indonesia supported "every effort on the disarmament of weapons of mass destruction through the United Nations Security Council." Indonesian government officials, preoccupied by the aftermath of the Bali attack in October and the threat of terrorism at home, have said little about Iraq.

With the war against Iraq apparently proceeding toward an overwhelming allied victory, President Bush tried to counter domestic critics this week when he said he saw nothing wrong with the fact that blacks, who make up just 12 percent of the U.S. population, constitute 30 percent of front line troops in the gulf.The reason for the disparity, Bush declared, was simply that the U.S. military is "the greatest equal opportunity employer around."That may be so, but what the president didn't say was that the military enjoys that status at least in part because of his own administration's resistance to stronger laws aimed at rooting out employment bias in the civilian economy.

LONDON - A top aide to Prime Minister Tony Blair wrote to the head of Britain's intelligence service this spring, conceding that the government's presentation of a report on Iraqi arms was mishandled and promising that "far greater care" would be taken with files, a British newspaper reported yesterday. The government acknowledged that Alastair Campbell, Blair's director of communications, wrote a letter of explanation to the chief of the Secret Intelligence Service. The admission came amid increased questioning of the use of intelligence findings to muster support for the war on Iraq.

Arlington, Virginia. -- The U.S. defense analytical community is erupting with instant ''lessons learned'' from the recent war against Iraq. Lessons abound about everything from strategy and tactics to the performance of ''smart'' munitions and the All-Volunteer Force.Caution, however, is in order. From a purely military standpoint, it is far from clear just how much Operation Desert Storm ''proved,'' in terms of lessons meaningful for future U.S. military operations.The stunning U.S. and allied victory over Iraqi forces in Kuwait was in large measure the product of a unique set of highly favorable diplomatic, political, strategic, operational and other conditions that are most unlikely ever again to be replicated.

Boca Raton, Florida--IS IT POSSIBLE that President Bush has lost his war against Saddam Hussein even before America's offensive forces have fired a single shot?Yes. Take a look at developments of just the past 10 days and you will see that U.S. sentiment against a military attack on Iraq is broad-based and rising:The Roman Catholic bishops of the United States voted 249-14 in support of a letter urging the Bush administration to show restraint in resorting to a military solution that would mean killing thousands of innocent civilians and children.